By Hazel Gandhi
An old video showing PM Modi shaking hands with some dignitaries on stage while an audience member recording the event is hurling abusing at him is being shared online as a recent incident from his state visit to the United States.
BOOM found that the claims are false, and the video shows Modi greeting some people at the Howdy Modi event that took place in Texas in September 2019. The audio of the clip appears to be doctored by overlaying an audio of a man speaking expletives in Punjabi.
PM Modi arrived in the US on June 21, 2023, as part of his three-day state visit to the country. Aside from leading the International Yoga Day event at the UN, he will also meet President Joe Biden to discuss partnerships in defence and technology, and India's role in the Indo-Pacific.
Amid this, an old clip of PM Modi walking on stage and shaking hands with several people while the person shooting the video is abusing him is viral. It is being shared online with the caption, "Whatever happened in America, I strongly condemn it. #ModiInUSA."
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from 2019, and was taken during PM Modi's visit to Texas as part of the Howdy Modi event.
Taking a cue from the American flags in the background along with the Indian flags, we looked for reports about PM Modi addressing a crowd in the United States during his previous visits. We found that in 2021, PM Modi visited the US and addressed the Quad Summit at the White House and the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly during his time there. Visuals from both events can be seen here and here respectively, both of which are not matching our viral video.
We went further back and found that PM Modi addressed the public during his 2019 visit to the country as part of the Howdy Modi event in Houston, Texas, on September 22. Videos from this event matched the visuals in our viral video, including PM Modi's outfit. A full video of this event was uploaded on PM Modi's YouTube channel.
At the 1:43:41 mark, Modi can be seen shaking hands with the people standing on the stage, which is also seen in our viral video from a different angle. A blue banner in the back reading 'Shared Dreams, Bright Futures' can also be seen in both videos. Apart from this, the setting of the stage is also the same. Here is a comparison between the visuals from the viral video and the original Howdy Modi event video.
BOOM also found that the abuses in Punjabi have been overlaid into the original video. A longer version of the same video uploaded on TikTok in November 2019 shows how the audience is raising slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram', not abusing the PM.
The same video was also shared on Twitter in September 2021.
Click here for an archive.
(With inputs from Sujith A).
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