Elections are ongoing in the country, and it seems that people peddling fake news have become more active than ever. Every day misinformation is being fed to a huge chunk of the population of the country. Those who are aware of the facts straightway swerve from these fake news that is mostly shared over WhatsApp groups, Twitter, and Facebook, but who gets convinced with the information cause more damage, by sharing it further.

Girl Saying Chowkidar Chor hai in front of PM Modi?

A video has been making rounds over WhatsApp and Twitter which show that a little sitting in the front row and when she was called by the Prime Minister to speak on-stage, she said, “Chowkidar Chor Hai”.

Fake News buster, BOOM Live found out that the voice over of ‘Cholidar Chor Hai’ was added on top of the original video, dated September 17, 2016. Actually, the girl was reading snippets of the Ramayana. The video is taken in an event when PM disbursed assistive devices to specially-abled people. Interestingly, the same video was edited in November 2018 attacking Congress President Rahul Gandhi. During that time video was tampered with, showing the girl to be saying ‘Rahul Gandhi Pappu Hai’.

The real video is here:

Fake Times Now Poll claiming Congress taking a lead

Another mischievous screenshot was seen bouncing over the internet, again particularly on the WhatsApp, which showed that Times Now – an English news channel ran a poll predicting the result of Phase 1 of Exit Poll for 91 Lok Sabha Seats. According to the screenshot image, Congress was predicted to win 48 seats whereas the BJP was restricted to 24 seats. 19 seats were attributed to Others.

BOOM Live found out that such a poll was never conducted by Times Now. Moreover, the Election Commission of India has barred from predicting exit polls between April 11 and May 19, 2019, till 6.30 pm. Rahul Shivshankar, the Editor-in-chief of Times Now further told BOOM that this image was fake and Time Now is completely complying with the Election Commission’s Code of Conduct.

Fake Newspaper clipping tweeted by RBI Board Member

On April 15, S Gurmurthy, part-time director of the Reserve Bank of India took to Twitter to post a clip of newspaper dated September 30, 2001, which had the heading of “Indian Politician Arrested”. The article mentioned that an Indian politician was detained at Boston airport when security found him in possession of banned drugs and unaccounted cash. It also read that the politician was a son of former Indian Prime Minister of India, and was only released when an Indian ambassador intervened.

Slinging mud at Rahul Gandhi subtly, Gurumurthy in his Tweet asked who is the son of former Prime Minister? However, he later deleted the Tweet. Harsh Sanghavi, BJP MLA also shared the news clip with a caption, “Who’s is this son of former Prime Minister of India Arrested? Guess Name?”

The BoomLive did a reverse search of the news clip and found that the image was actually developed through a Newspaper clipping generator tool called fodey.com. The website allows you to add whatever text with a masthead of any newspaper one wants. The fact-checking website entered the same text with the same masthead that was used in the “fake clip” and found out that both the clips were same.

The Logical Indian Take

We ask all our readers to not blindly trust any WhatsApp forwards or news forwarded over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. As a citizen of the country one has a certain responsibility. One should always verify the news before sharing it over. Fake news can cause unspeakable damage to one’s life. So please cross check and try to distinguish between a piece of fake news and an original one.

Also Read: Fact Check: From Fake Iraqi Car Blast Video To Dogs Martyred In Pulawama Attack