Fact Check: Poster shows Hockey players along with Indian PM and Odisha CM, Image is cropped
Indian Hockey team won a historic bronze medal in Paris Olympics 2024, beating Spain by 2-1. Harmanpreet Singh's brace helped India win consecutive bronze medals in Hockey, first in Tokyo and now in Paris.
Odisha government
Indian Hockey team won a historic bronze medal in Paris Olympics 2024, beating Spain by 2-1. Harmanpreet Singh's brace helped India win consecutive bronze medals in Hockey, first in Tokyo and now in Paris. The India vs Spain Olympic bronze medal match was PR Sreejesh's farewell match for the Indian team, he had announced that he would be retiring after the Olympics. After the match in Olympics, the Men’s hockey team received a grand welcome home from fans and the Odisha government at Bhubaneswar airport.
Meanwhile, an image showing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi with the text: “Thank you Heroes of Indian Hockey for making the Nation Proud, Bronze in Paris, Pride at home.” The image with both the PM and CM is shared on social media, especially X (Twitter), with satirical captions that the heroes seen in the poster were not seen playing Hockey in the Olympics. Some users shared the image with the caption “Salute to the Heroes of Indian Hockey Heroes : > Narendra Damodardas Modi > Mohan Charan Majhi”
Other users shared the image with captions like “Sorry for my poor general knowledge, which one is Sreejesh and which one is Harmanpreet. It maybe it's Manpreet or lalit or gurjant or rohidas”
Fact check:
The claim is Misleading. The poster released by the Odisha government also shared the photo of Men’s Hockey team members.
When we searched the viral image using reverse image search, we found that the viral image shows only part of the original poster released by the Odisha government in honor of the Men’s Hockey team. We found an X (Twitter) post sharing the complete advertisement published on The Indian Express with the caption “Hello @CMO_Odisha @odisha_
When we observed the date on The Indian Express screenshot shared, we found that it was August 22, 2024. Taking the cue, we searched for the epaper of The Indian Express with the full advertisement on it. We found that the Odisha government published a full paper poster welcoming Mens Hockey team members both on August 21, and August 22, 2024.
The X account of CMO Odisha has also shared a poster welcoming the team members to India with images of Indian PM Narendra Modi, Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi, and the complete Indian Hockey team.
According to a report published on Newsonair.gov, The Indian Men’s Hockey Team received a grand welcome from fans and the Odisha government at Bhubaneswar airport yesterday, after winning the bronze medal at the recently held Paris Olympics.
Sports Minister of Odisha Suryabanshi Suraj, Principal Secretary, Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma, and other government officials joined Hockey India President Dr. Dilip Kumar Tirkey and Treasurer Sekar J. Manoharan in welcoming the team at the airport. The Indian Hockey Team was honored with a thrilling open-top bus parade in Bhubaneswar for their back-to-back Olympic glory. After this, a walk of fame was organized for the champions, followed by a felicitation ceremony at the iconic Kalinga Stadium.
As per a report in Telegraph India, Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi has announced that the Odisha government would sponsor the Indian hockey teams, both men’s and women’s, till 2036. The Odisha government is the official sponsor of the Indian hockey teams for both men and women till 2033 and now it has been extended for another three years.
Hence, the viral image in circulation makes a Misleading claim that the poster released by Odisha authorities shows only images of the Indian PM and Odisha CM and not the real heroes of the Indian Hockey Team. A cropped image of the full poster published in newspapers is in circulation with a misleading claim.