DigitEye India Fact Checkers
BJP West Bengal has put out a poster on social media amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, hailing PM Narendra Modi for his contribution to developing India’s Metro rail network across the country in many cities.
কর্মসংস্থান না বাড়লে কীভাবে ভারতের শহরে শহরে পৌঁছে গেল মেট্রো পরিষেবা?
কংগ্রেস বলবে, বিজেপি করবে! #Vote4BJP #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar pic.twitter.com/Jmmb9ngsfK
— BJP West Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) May 12, 2024
The claim in Bengali reads: কর্মসংস্থান না বাড়লে কীভাবে ভারতের শহরে শহরে পৌঁছে গেল মেট্রো পরিষেবা? কংগ্রেস বলবে, বিজেপি করবে!” [Translated from Bengali, it reads: How did metro services reach cities in India without increasing employment? Congress will say, BJP will do!”
The tweet has generated a discussion on social media with users questioning the image and attribution to Modi’s achievement in India. Several X users have pointed out that the railway line used in the poster was that of Jurong East MRT in Singapore and not in India.
FACT CHECK
Following the debate, we quickly searched for the image of Jurong East MRT’s pictures and found the one used in Wikipedia was taken by the West Bengal unit of BJP to claim that it was built by Modi. The Jurong East MRT station is an elevated intersection in Jurong East, Singapore, operated by Singapore’s SMRT Trains Limited.
Further, when we took the image and checked on Google Reverse Image Search, we found that the exact photo was published in Singapore-based The Straits Times on Febbruary 13, 2020. The article titled “Commuters were told to add about 20 minutes to their train journeys between Choa Chu Kang MRT and Jurong East MRT stations.”
This is not the first time that a BJP unit used a wrong picture to claim achievement in terms of infrastructure. Digiteye India debunked such claim about an expressway in Uttar Pradesh in 2021.
Hence, the claim with an unrelated photo of a metro image is false.
Claim: BJP West Bengal unit’s poster with a metro photo claims it was among PM Modi’s achievements.
Conclusion: The claim is false. Singapore’s Jurong Metro image used to claim as Modi’s achievement.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
