Authors
A Whatsapp message claims that New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern speaks about her strength derived from Indian scriptures in a video. The message reads, “ New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern. She speaks on her strength derived from Indian scriptures. This is so beautiful n superb. ” You can watch the entire video we received with the claim below.
We received this message on our Whatsapp verification number asking us to verify this claim.
This claim is widely circulating on Twitter and Facebook as well. You can see a few examples of this below.
Fact Check/ Verification
As a start, we ran a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes on InVid, an online verification tool. The resulting Google search led us to a link on reddit.com.
Taking cue from the link on Reddit, we did a Google advanced search on the keywords “Tulsi Gabbard Janmashtami.” This led us to Tulsi Gabbard’s official Youtube channel. On 10 August, a video titled, Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 Janmashtami Message” was published and has received over 92,000 views so far.
Tulsi Gabbard is a Congresswoman in the United States of America and former US presidential candidate (as per her Twitter profile). Gabbard posted a tweet from her personal Twitter handle on 11 August wishing a “Happy Janmashtami” to all those celebrating around the world. Her tweet gained over 48K likes and 13K retweets at the time of writing this fact check and it reads as follows:
“To all celebrating around the world, I want to wish you a very Happy Janmashtami! May we always be blessed with remembrance of Sri Krishna, His unconditional love, and His transcendental appearance in this world. Jai Sri Krishna! #HappyJanmashtami #KrishnaJanmashtami”
She also posted this video of her wishing a happy Janmashtami on her Facebook account on 11 August.
According to our research, we can say that the claim in context passes off Gabbard’s video as a message by the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. For further clarification, you can view PM Ardern’s photograph below.
Conclusion
Our research makes it clear that the Whatsapp message which claims the video in context to be of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking of deriving her strength from Indian scriptures is misleading. The video actually shows US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard wishing a happy Janmashtami to all those celebrating around the world.
Result: Misleading
Our Sources
Tulsi Gabbard’s verified Youtube channel
Tulsi Gabbard’s verified Twitter account
Tulsi Gabbard’s verified Facebook account
PM Jacinda Ardern’s profile on New Zealand’s government website: https://www.govt.nz/organisations/department-of-the-prime-minister-and-cabinet/
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