CLAIMHeadline of a three-month-old news report has been doctored to target PM
Narendra Modi.
A fake quote attributed to top US industrialist and former chairman of
CISCO Systems
John Chambers is being circulated a lot. The quote reads, “India's "impressive development" will cease to exist if Modi gets a second term as country’s leader after next year’s parliamentary election.”
The tampered news report was shared by the serial fake page “We support Ravish Kumar” on Facebook.
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At the time of filing this report, this post had received more than five thousand shares over four thousand likes.
TRUTHThe quote is fake and opposite of what Chambers said about Modi in July this year. During the inaugural Annual Leadership Summit of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum on July 12 in Washington, Chambers told a group of Indian reporters that India’s impressive development and inclusive growth risks losing steam if Modi is not re-elected in the 2019 elections.
“Modi is courageous. He wakes up every day thinking about your country’s future. I think it would be a major risk not to give him a chance to lead India again for five years,” Chambers said.
Full details of the report can be
read here.
VERIFICATIONA close look at the title of the news report flags doubt about its authenticity. The third word of the headline -- PM -- stands out because of its bold font. This compelled us to examine the body of the story.
The first line of the story itself contradicts the headline.. It reads “top US industrialist has said that if Modi is not given the opportunity to lead India after next
Lok Sabha
elections, India’s breathtaking growth will be in danger”.
METHODOLOGYWe searched on Google using several keywords to find original news reports in Hindi about what Chambers said.
The search led to a site called modinewslibrary.com that has curated the original news report published by ‘
Dainik Jagran
’.
In a report dated July 15, Jagran had carried the
story with this headline.
It is clear that fourth and fifth words of the Jagran headline were altered to change the meaning of the story.
We found the original paper clipping as well.
Now compare the two and see the difference:
VERDICTTimes Fact Check has found the newspaper clipping about John Chambers calling PM Modi bad for India’s development to be a rigged version of the original news that reported Chambers praising Modi.