As India participated in the recent G7 summit held in London, the Indian delegation had make virtual presence. The entire Indian delegation for the G7 summit in London was on Wednesday asked to self isolate after some of its members tested positive for COVID-19. In a tweet, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who is heading the Indian delegation at the G7 summit in London, also revealed that he is attending the meetings virtually because he may have been exposed to the infection.
Shortly after, a video showing pictures of Jaishankar with various G7 delegates went viral with the claim that the Indian foreign minister refused to quarantine and and broke isolation norms.
The claim
Social media went berserk after a video criticising Jaishankar on an international platform went viral. As per the video, the Indian foreign minister broke quarantine to meet United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Home Secretary Preeti Patel during the G7 summit.
The photos of Jaishankar meeting with the UK and US delegations were part of what appeared to be a news segment, drawing strong criticism on the actions of the minister. The allegations made in the video suggest Jaishankar broke isolation and met other foreign delegates despite members of his team tested COVID positive.
The video was shared by Sikh Federation UK on Twitter and @Shenaz30. After thousands of views and RTs, the video drew a lot of flak towards EAM. The video also claims that the Indian delegation had no respect for the rules of the law and that Indian PM Narendra Modi should stay away from next month's G7 summit.
Fact check
International Business Times reviewed the video in circulation and found some elements that raise red flags on its authenticity. It is clearly a case of manipulated video as you can notice the Sky News logo appears at the beginning and towards the end. However, the news logo disappears when the allegations are made against the Indian foreign minister that he broke isolation to meet other delegates at the summit. Only the Sikh Federation UK's logo appears throughout the video.
Also, if you listen to the audio in the video, the voice-over is different when Jaishankar's segment is played. It appears a text-to-voice software like Polly was used with a British accent to mislead viewers into thinking that it is part of the authentic news segment.
The British news channel's coverage of the summit, from where the clip has been sourced, can be found on their official YouTube channel and no where it mentions Jaishankar breaking isolation to meet other delegates at G7. To further clarify, the photos of Jaishankar meeting other delegates were from May 3, and the delegation went into isolation on May 5.
BOOM discredited the video as doctored after reviewing all facts.
Based on these facts, IBTimes has arrived at the conclusion that the viral video alleging that Jaishankar broke isolation and met other delegates is false and doctored.
