A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as an old picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Gujarat conman Kiran Patel who allegedly posed as a top PMO official and duped the Jammu and Kashmir administration. Mentioning that the photo was taken in 1993, the post claims that the man who was posing beside Modi while keeping his hands in his pockets was Kiran Patel. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: 1993 photo showing PM Narendra Modi posing along with Gujarat conman Kiran Patel.
Fact: The man who was posing beside Narendra Modi, with his hands in his pockets, is BJP leader and the present Union Minister, G. Kishan Reddy. The photo was taken in 1994 when Narendra Modi was invited to the US by the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL). The photo has nothing to do with Gujarat conman Kiran Patel. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in an article published by ‘The Indian Express’ on 26 November 2014. Crediting the photo to Press Trust of India (PTI), The Indian Express provided a description below the photo stating-“Seen here Narendra Modi (2nd from left) outside the White House in Washington in 1994 along with G Kishan Reddy (1st from left), currently BJP State President, Telangana.”
Several news websites published the same photo describing that the man posing with his hands in his pockets is BJP leader and the present Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy. They can be seen here and here.
When we searched for further sources, we found the same picture in a collage of images posted by G. Kishan Reddy on Facebook on 25 September 2014. Sharing the pictures, Kishan Reddy said, “20 years ago in 1994 Sri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, visited USA on the invitation of ACYPL (American Council of Young Political Leaders).” Further, he said, “I was part of his team along with Sri Ananth Kumar Union Minister for fertilizers and Chemicals and today he is visiting USA again as the proud Prime Minister of India. Let us greet him to make this historic movement in Indo-US relation. Here are a few pictures from my memory-lane which I feel to share with you to reminisce the occasion.” Ahead of Narendra Modi’s first visit to the US after becoming Prime Minister of India, Kishan Reddy shared these images on his Facebook page.
To sum it up, the man posing with Narendra Modi in this photo is BJP leader G. Kishan Reddy, not the Gujarat Conman Kiran Patel.
