A video through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that the Arab Sultan had presented a gold chain to Narendra Modi as a welcome gift. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Arab Sultan presenting gold chain to PM Narendra Modi as a welcome gift.
Fact: The video is from 2019 when Narendra Modi was conferred with the highest civilian award of UAE, ‘Order of Zayed’. On 24 August 2019, PM Narendra Modi was awarded the highest civilian award of UAE ‘Order of Zayed’ by the Crown Prince of UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahya. Order of Zayed “consists of a collar centred by a medallion holding the name of ‘Zayed’ the founding father of the United Arab Emirates.” Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahya had personally put the gold medal around Narendra Modi’s neck. It is awarded to Heads of states “for their international leadership in strengthening relations with United Arab Emirates.” Past awardees include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping. Narendra Modi did visit UAE recently, but he was not presented any gold chains as a welcome gift. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found on YouTube. The YouTube video was uploaded on 24 August 2019, so the video is not a recent one. The visuals were from UAE when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the highest civilian award of UAE known as ‘Order of Zayed’. The award was given by the crown prince of UAE Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahya.
After being conferred the ‘Order of Zayed’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to twitter and thanked the UAE government for giving him such an honour. Modi shared some of the pictures taken during the event, which are similar to the visuals in the viral video.
On 24 August 2019, Narendra Modi was awarded the highest civilian award of UAE ‘Order of Zayed’ by the Crown Prince of UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahya. Order of Zayed “consists of a collar centred by a medallion holding the name of ‘Zayed’ the founding father of the United Arab Emirates.” Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahya had personally put the gold medal around Narendra Modi’s neck. It is awarded to Heads of states “for their international leadership in strengthening relations with United Arab Emirates.” Past awardees include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On 28 June 2022, Narendra Modi visited the UAE but there is no credible information that he was presented a gold chain as a welcome gift. The MEA publishes data on ‘gifts presented to VIPs/members of the official delegation during their official foreign visits, which are received in the Toshakhana’. We could not find any such gold chains received, in the list provided by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Factly had started a ‘Know Your Sources’ series on Twitter where sources of data from the government can be seen every week. This twitter thread provides details on disclosure of gifts received by government functionaries when they go to foreign countries.
To sum it up, old video of PM Modi receiving the highest civilian award of UAE is shared as a welcome gift presented to him during a recent visit.
