The New York Times did not call Narendra Modi the ‘Last, Best Hope of Earth’
An image of a lead article on the front page of New York Times is being widely shared on social media through a post which claims that Narendra Modi is the ‘Last, Best Hope Of Earth.’ The article carries the headline, ‘Last, Best Hope of Earth’, followed by a sub-title which reads, ‘World’s most loved and most powerful leader, is here to bless us.’ Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: The New York Times calls PM Modi as the ‘Last, Best Hope Of Earth’.
Fact: There is no lead article on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the front page of the New York Times’ Sunday edition (26 September 2021). The actual front page of the Sunday edition of the New York Times is different and had been morphed to include the supposed article. ‘Last Best Hope of Earth’ is a phrase made popular by Abraham Lincoln, which he made in reference to the United States of America, Freedom and Democracy during the Civil War in 1862. There are no recent news articles in the New York Times which call PM Modi as the ‘Last, Best Hope Of Earth’. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There is no lead article on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the front page of the New York Times’ Sunday edition (26 September 2021). The actual front page of the Sunday edition of the New York Times can be seen here. There are no recent news articles in the New York Times which call PM Modi as the ‘Last, Best Hope of Earth’.
When one looks at the image in the post closely, the spelling of the month of September is wrong. It is written in the image as, “SETPEMBER.” The ‘Volume No.’ and the ‘cost’ of the newspaper are different in the image when compared to the actual Sunday edition of NYT.
The sentences used in the supposed article are unlike what is used by the New York Times. The caption below the image reads, “His highness, Modiji is signing on a blank a4 paper to bless our country…har har modi.”
The font used in the image is also different and unlike the recent editions of New York Times. The font used in the caption under Modi’s image is different when compared to the font used in the caption of the image used in actual Sunday edition.
When reverse image search is done on the image of PM Modi in the post, several articles (here and here) were found with the same image. This image of PM Modi was captured on 12 March 2021 while the Prime Minister was signing the visitor’s book at Sabarmati Ashram, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
‘Last Best Hope of Earth’ is a phrase made popular by Abraham Lincoln, which he made in reference to the United States of America, Freedom and Democracy during the Civil War. On 01 December 1862, Abraham Lincoln submitted his second Annual message to Congress, in which, he used this sentence. “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”
‘The New York Times’ through a tweet on 29 September 2021 has also clarified that the image shared in the post is completely fabricated.
To sum it up, ‘The New York Times’ did not call Narendra Modi the ‘Last, Best Hope of Earth’, the photo shared in the post is digitally created.
Update (SEPTEMBER 29, 2021):
This article has been updated to include the clarification tweet from ‘The New York Times’.