Old photo shared as recent picture of slums covered up during UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Gujarat - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 25, 2022
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it is a picture of slums covered up during UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Gujarat. This post accused the Narendra Modi government of hiding slums using curtains during Boris Johnson’s visit to India. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent picture of slums covered up during UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Gujarat.
Fact: The photo shared in the post was taken in March 2021, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations. However, during Boris Johnson’s recent visit to Gujarat, similar white curtains were arranged to cover slums on the roads from Ahmedabad to Sabarmati. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found tweeted by the ‘Ahmedabad Mirror’ news website on 12 March 2021. The description of the photo states, “Slum residents of Parikshit Nagar in Ahmedabad peep from the covers that block their view of the route to Sabarmati Ashram. PM Narendra Modi is expected to begin the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence Day celebrations”. ‘Ahmedabad Mirror’ credited this photo to their journalist Asik Banerjee.
Slum residents of #ParikshitNagar in #Ahmedabad peep from the covers that block their view of the route to #SabarmatiAshram. PM @narendramodi is expected to begin the 75th anniversary of India's #Independence #Day #celebrations
Credit : @AsikBanerjee pic.twitter.com/KHn7ItjgG4
A few other journalists have also tweeted similar pictures of covered slums during Narendra Modi’s visit to Sabarmati Ashram in 2021, as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations. They can be seen here and here.
Aao chupan chupaai khele ek aur baar..
Hidding the slums once again??#DandiYatra #MahatmaGandhi #DandiMarch #Ahmedabad pic.twitter.com/UtroZPhz5D
However, during the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent visit to Gujarat, similar white curtains were arranged to cover slums on the roads from Ahmedabad to Sabarmati. Several National and International news websites have published articles reporting this information. They can be seen here and here. But the photo shared in the post is not related to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent visit to India. In 2020, during the former U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to India, the government had built walls to hide slums from Trump’s view in Ahmedabad.
To sum it up, an old photo is shared as the recent picture of the Modi government hiding slums during Boris Johnson’s visit to Gujarat.