Fact Check: Video showing Modi at a public meeting makes false claim that he didn’t accept a Ganesh idol
All political parties are gearing up for the upcoming general elections in 2024. Candidate lists are being released and the Bharatiya Janata Party has released its first list of 195 candidates
Modi - Lord ganesha idol
All political parties are gearing up for the upcoming general elections in 2024. Candidate lists are being released and the Bharatiya Janata Party has released its first list of 195 candidates contesting for the Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Modi will be contesting from Varanasi for the third time, he secured major victories in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019.
Amidst this, a video of Indian PM Modi is being shared on social media with the claim that he refused to accept Lord Ganesha's idol during a public meeting onstage. Several users shared a video where Modi can be seen commenting at a person holding the Ganesha idol and posing for the cameras with a namaskar after the person holding the idol moves away.
The video is shared with a caption in Hindi that goes “नरेंद्र मोदी ने गणेश जी की मू
When translated, it claims “Narendra Modi did not take the idol of Ganesh ji! Imagine, if any opposition leader had refused to accept Lord Ganesha’s idol in place of Modi, today a bunch of Godi media and BJP supporters would have broken their bangles.”
A Facebook user shared the same video with caption “मोदी जी ने भगवान गणेश को लेने से मना कर दिया”
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The video is edited to suggest that PM Modi did not accept Lord Ganesha's idol, he can be seen accepting the idol later.
When we performed a Google reverse image search using the keyframes extracted from the video, we found a YouTube video published by News 18 Kannada on May 3, 2023, with the title “LIVE: PM Modi Rally In Ankola | BJP Election Campaign | Karnataka Elections 2023 | News18 Kannada.”
It is a live-streamed video of a public meeting conducted at Ankola in Karnataka during the Karnataka Elections 2023. The incident seen in the viral video can be seen at 1.41.33 minutes to 1.42.20 minutes, where Modi can be seen accepting various things presented to him. He wears a Yakshagana crown, accepts garlands, etc. When a person with a huge Ganesha idol comes forward, he is told to step back a little, after which Modi is seen posing with a namaskar and then later accepts the Ganesha idol, posing for pictures.
When observed, we can see the logo of ‘Vijayavani’ in Kannada language, in the video. So taking the cue, we searched for the YouTube channel of Vijayavani. We found a video published on May 3, 2023 with the title ‘PM Modi Wears Yakshagana Crown In Mulki ಮೋದಿಗೆ ಯಕ್ಷಗಾನ ಕಿರೀಟ ತೊಡಿಸಿ ಸನ್
In this video also, we can see that PM Modi has accepted the Ganesha idol.
A complete video of the meeting can also be seen on the YouTube channel of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Therefore, the claim that Modi did not accept Lord Ganesha's idol when presented during the public meeting is False. The viral video has been edited to make a False claim.