Viral Image claims PM Modi elected as ‘Chief President’ by 53 heads of state in Britain; Fact Check

A Twitter image is going viral with the claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected by a forum in Britain as the chief among 53 heads of different countries.

The picture shows the Indian PM standing in the middle with folded hands and other leaders standing around him and applauding. The message with the image reads in Hindi:

“200 साल तक हमे गुलाम बनाने वाले ब्रिटेन मे कल 53 देशों के अध्यक्षो के बीच “मोदी महा अध्यक्ष” थे. यह दृश्य देखकर हर भारतीय का सीना गर्व से चौड़ा हो गया होगा.!” [Among the heads of 53 countries, Modi was the ‘Chief President’ yesterday in Britain, a country that enslaved us for 200 years. After seeing this scene, every Indian’s chest would have expanded with pride.]

Fact Check

When Digiteye India team checked the picture as received on its WhatsApp number for fact checking, it gave out that they used an image which was debunked by Digiteye India earlier. When we checked the results on Google Reverse Image search for the original image, it showed us that the picture was an old one from the 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland.

It was shared by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, on its Twitter on 23 January 2018, with a caption:”The world applauds 1.3 bn people of India at the @wef in #Davos appreciating the remarkable transformation in improving the business climate. PM @narendramodi interacting with the top global CEOs at the International Business Council event. #IndiaMeansBusiness”.

The same image was carried by different news outlets on Jan 24, 2018 too. The context was that the Indian PM interacted with the international business community at the Forum, which is an annual event. Hence the claim was wrong as no such forum was held in Britain, nor the Indian PM elected as its Chief President.

Claim: Indian PM Modi elected as Chief President at a form of 53 heads of world governments.

Conclusion: No such event or a forum organised in Britain, nor the Indian PM elected its chief president. The image belongs to Indian PM attending the 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland.

Our Rating: Totally False —

About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in

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