Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Several social media users are circulating a screenshot of a tweet by NDTV, claiming that PM Narendra Modi has scored a self-goal by criticising the “lack of efforts” to develop Gujarat’s coastline. Twitter users were quick to point out that the PM held the post of the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, along with being in power in the Centre since 2014. The users also pointed out that the BJP has been in power in the state ever since it won the Gujarat assembly elections in 1995. The headline in the viral NDTV tweet’s screenshot read “Gujarat has longest coastline, but no efforts made to develop it: PM Modi”.
The archived version of NDTV’s tweet, dated September 29 and which has since been deleted, can be seen here.
The archived versions of the viral posts can be seen here, here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker went to the news report the NDTV tweet pointed to, which was headlined “Gujarat Has Longest Coastline, BJP Made It Gateway To India’s Progress: PM”.
According to the report,the PM, while addressing a public rally in Bhavnagar city in Gujarat’s Saurashtra, it’s peninsular region and said that although Gujarat has the longest coastline in the country, no attention was paid for its development for decades post-Independence, but “honest attempts” were made in the past 20 years by the BJP government to turn it into the country’s “door of prosperity”. He reportedly said the BJP government in Gujarat implemented several big-ticket projects along the state’s coastline without wasting money on publicity.
The report makes it clear that he was taking aim at previous governments and was highlighting how his party’s regime helped develop the state’s coastline. “Gujarat has the longest coastline in the country, but no attention was paid for its development for decades after India gained independence. As a result, the coastline created challenges for the people living along it,” he said, in a veiled attack on the Congress, according to the report.
Upon doing a keyword search on Twitter, we saw that on September 30, NDTV had sent out a revised tweet for the news report. The headline read “Despite Longest Coastline, No Efforts Made To Develop Gujarat Since Independence: PM Modi,” which was more accurate to the story.
Newschecker then did a keyword search for “Bhavnagar Modi” on Youtube, which led us to this video, uploaded by Modi’s Youtube channel. The title of the video read, “PM Modi’s speech at launch of development projects in Bhavnagar, Gujarat”, while the description stated, ”PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth over ₹5,200 crores in Bhavnagar. The Prime Minister remarked that in the last two decades, the government has made sincere efforts to make Gujarat’s coastline the gateway to India’s prosperity.” We have developed many ports in Gujarat, modernised many ports, the description quoted Modi as saying.
5 minutes 23 seconds into the video , PM Modi talks about the “country’s longest coastline” ignored for long after independence and how his administration had developed it over the past two decades, confirming that NDTV’s earlier tweet had misquoted PM Narendra Modi when he spoke about development along Gujarat’s coastline.
Conclusion
PM Narendra Modi criticised the previous non-BJP governments for neglecting Gujarat’s coastline. He was misquoted in the NDTV tweet, which was picked up by several social media users to mock the prime minister.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
NDTV report, September 29, 2022
Youtube video, September 29, 2022
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
