Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
Journalist Swati Chaturvedi shared a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others claiming it to be of his marriage. Swati wrote, “Does this look like a forced child marriage to you? Yet, Modi never declared this on his mandatory declaration as Gujarat CM”. However, she has deleted her tweet now, but you can view the archived version of the same here.
Furthermore, she also made a tweet claiming she found the image during a Google search and cannot confirm the authenticity of it. She tweeted, “I found this pic on Goggle. Cannot vouch for the veracity. Search Modi marriage pics…”
We also noticed that this is not the first time this image has been shared as Narendra Modi’s marriage picture as several users have shared it with similar claims in the past.
Fact Check/Verification
A Google reverse image search led us to multiple news reports and websites which included the image from the claim.
https://daily.bhaskar.com/news/TOP-narendra-modi-rare-images-5419090.html?seq=2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jashodaben_Narendrabhai_Modi.jpg
Continuing our investigation, we performed a Twitter advanced search to know more about the viral image. A search with relevant keywords led us to tweets by right-leaning users with the claim that the viral photo is of the wedding ceremony of former Union Minister Kanshiram Rana’s daughter.
We then performed a Facebook search that led us to a 2014 Facebook post by user Whatz AAP who shared the same image accompanied by a description that reads, “GET THE TRUTH…READ THIS.
The lady in the picture is Surat’s ex-Minister Hemant Chapatwala’s daughter. It was her wedding where this picture was taken decades ago & she is like a younger sister to Modi. Those who have been spreading canards & innuendos by stating untruths…that it was Modi’s marriage…should be ashamed for spreading another lie as has been their wont. EAT CROW AAP & CONGRESS BED-MATES… GET THE TRUTH FAIR & SQUARE… YOU ARE SPREADING LIES…WHICH WON’T PAST MUSTER”
Taking a cue from the above Facebook post, we then performed Google search with different combinations of keywords, thus finding another Facebook post by user Keyur Hemant Chapatwala who shared the image with the description, “Rare Picture of Modiji attending Marriage of My Sister Alpa way back in 1994. Needed to clarify due to false messages & rumours being spread intensely in social media about Shri Narendra Modiji in this Pic.”
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=771951446163373&set=a.541741072517746
We also found the latest photograph of Hemant Chapatwala’s daughter which further confirms that the viral image is of Alpa Chapatwala’s marriage ceremony. Notably, the picture was shared by Keyur Hemant Chapatwala who is the son of former Gujarat Education Minister Hemant Chapatwala.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=839175639440953&set=a.541741072517746
Fact-checking organisation Alt News could contact Keyur Hemant Chapatwala who confirmed that the lady in the viral image is his sister namely ‘Alpa Chapatwala’. Hemant has also shared other photos of the same ceremony.
This claim has been debunked in our Hindi fact-check as well.
Therefore we could reach the conclusion that the lady shown in the viral image is neither PM Modi’s wife Jasodaben nor former Union Minister Kashiram Rana’s daughter but is the daughter of former Gujarat Education Minister Hemant Chapatwala.
Result: False/Misplaced Context
Sources:
Facebook Post by Hemant Chapatwala: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=771951446163373&set=a.541741072517746
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Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
