A photo is being shared on social media with a claim that it is an old photo of PM Narendra Modi along with Anna Hazare. It is being claimed that this old relationship is the reason behind the silence of Anna Hazare during the current protests. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Old photo of PM Narendra Modi with Anna Hazare.
Fact: The man in the photo along with Narendra Modi is not Anna Hazare. He is Laxmanrao Inamdar, also popularly known as ‘Vakil Saheb’. He was a senior RSS leader and had a great influence on Modi’s life. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the photo was run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same photo was found to be published by various news agencies. In the articles of ‘India Today’ and ‘The Economic Times’, it can be read that the man in the photo along with PM Modi is Laxmanrao Inamdar, also popularly known as ‘Vakil Saheb’.
The colour version of the same photo can be found in an article by ‘BBC – Hindi’ on Laxmanrao Inamdar.
The tweets made by PM Modi mentioning Laxmanrao Inamdar can be seen here, here and here. On the ‘Narendra Modi’ website, Laxmanrao Inamdar’s name was also mentioned as one of the strongest influences on Modi’s life.
More information regarding Laxmanrao Inamdar can be read here, here, and here.
Recently, several news agencies have reported that ‘social activist Anna Hazare has threatened to go on a hunger strike if his demands on issues concerning farmers are not met by the Union government by the end of January next year’.
To sum it up, the man in the photo along with Narendra Modi is Laxmanrao Inamdar, not Anna Hazare.
