An image of former US President Barack Obama watching Narendra Modi taking his oath as the Prime Minister made its rounds on social media.
The photo was shared multiple times on Facebook. The friendship between Obama and Modi is well known with both sharing a jolly camaraderie whenever they met many were not surprised to see the photo of Obama watching PM Modi taking the oath.
However, this photo has turned out to be fake as it was first posted by New York Times photographer Doug Mills on Twitter in 2014. Obama, who was the president then, was watching a football match between the US and Germany during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This was found through Google reverse search.
Doug Mills had posted the image from his Twitter account with the caption, "President Obama watches the USA vs Germany World Cup game aboard Air Force One en route to Minneapolis. #worldcup".
The doctored photo was first shared on May 30, on the day of Modi's swearing-in ceremony. The photo came with the caption, "This is the power of Modi, even Obama in America is watching and listening to Modi's swearing-in ceremony."
The image of Modi reading the oath was superimposed on the television screen.
In addition to this, a video has also surfaced of a group of people at a bar, watching a screen of Modi taking the oath and cheering him on.
People in London were watching #ModiSwearingIn ceremony instead of #ENGvSA world cup match. Can anyone confirm this? pic.twitter.com/oBZTxGznNp
— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) May 30, 2019
By just searching 'fans at a bar celebrating', the search results showed that the video was originally uploaded on June 16, 2016.
The video of Modi swearing-in was digitally altered to fit the screen and the fans going berserk was them celebrating a goal by Daniel Sturridge from England.
