A widely circulated image on social media features a bus with a front portion resembling that of the Vande Bharat train. This image is being linked to a satirical assertion that it represents the inaugural Vande Bharat journey from Banaras to Ghazipur. In this article, we fact-check the credibility of both the image and the associated claim.
Claim: Image of the inaugural Vande Bharat bus from Banaras to Ghazipur
Fact: The Vande Bharat bus service between Banaras and Ghazipur has not been launched by either the Indian government or the Uttar Pradesh state government. The widely circulated image is a product of digital manipulation, where the front part of the Vande Bharat train has been digitally added to a bus. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Firstly, neither the government of India nor Uttar Pradesh’s state government has initiated a Vande Bharat bus service. We could not find any reports of such bus service between Banaras and Ghazipur, suggesting the news to be false.
As for the image, it appears to have been digitally manipulated. Upon conducting a reverse image search, we identified a stock image of the Vande Bharat train, where the front portion closely resembles that of the alleged Vande Bharat bus. Over the years the same image has been used in reports related to the Vande Bharat train (here & here).
Upon careful examination of the images, we can identify commonalities such as the reflection of wires on glass, lights, and the positioning of wipers. This implies that the portion of the Vande Bharat train image featured in the news report has likely been digitally inserted into an image of a bus.
Moreover, the identical bus image is being circulated with attributions to various locations across the country (here & here). When this image was shared with a similar claim linking it to Khagaria, Bihar, PTI clarified that there is no such bus service initiated in Khagaria and confirmed that the image had been digitally manipulated.
To sum it up, this image of a bus, resembling the Vande Bharat train is digitally created.
