With Narendra Modi alleging that INS Viraat was used as ‘personal taxi’ by Rajiv Gandhi for his family vacation, a post is being shared on Facebook with a claim that Union Minister Arun Jaitley has also used an Indian Navy Chopper for his personal use. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Claim: The image in the post shows Arun Jaitley as Defence Minister using an Indian Navy Chopper to ferry his family to a wedding in Goa.
Fact: The photo was taken when Jaitley visited Jammu and Kashmir, in May 2017, to review the security situation and also, to attend the GST Council Meeting. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the image in the post is run through Google Reverse Image Search, a similar photo can be found in an India Today article. According to that article, in May 2017, Arun Jaitley along with the Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat arrived in Srinagar to review the security situation in the valley. Also, Arun Jaitley was in Srinagar to attend the two-day GST Council Meeting on 18th and 19th May 2017. Arun Jaitley was holding both Defence and Finance portfolios at that point of time.
Also, Arun Jaitley had posted similar photos of this visit on his official Twitter account.
With respect to the news on using Navy chopper in 2014, Jaitley responded then by dismissing the claims on the use of Navy chopper for personal purposes.
To sum it up, the photo was taken when Jaitley visited Srinagar to review the security situation.
