A screenshot of a tweet claiming President Ram Nath Kovind asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi permission to withdraw actress Kangana Ranaut's Padma Shri Award is from a fake Twitter account. The viral screenshot, created from an imposter Twitter account of Kovind, says that he is embarrassed to have given the Padma award to Kangana and wants to withdraw it.
BOOM found that the Twitter account is fake and no such tweet by tweeted by the official verified account of Kovind.
The screenshot is being shared as Ranaut recently courted controversy with her statement that India's Independence from the British in 1947 as "bheek", or alms, on a Times Now show. The actress added that actual freedom came in 2014, when the Narendra Modi-led government came to power. Ranaut had recently received her Padma Shri Award from President Kovind in New Delhi.
The tweet in the screenshot when translated reads, "Remark made by Kangana Ranaut is hurting the sentiments of the country, I myself feel ashamed to be given Padma award to her! My government requests Shri @narendramodi to allow me to withdraw the award."
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(In Hindi - कंगना रनौत द्वारा की गई टिप्पणी देश की भावनाओं को आहत करने वाली है , मै स्वयं उन्हें पद्म पुरस्कार दिये जाने के लिए शर्मिंदगी महसूस कर रहा हूँ ! मेरी सरकार श्री @narendramodi से विनती है कि मुझे पुरस्कार वापस लेने की अनुमति दी जाए।)
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral screenshot is from a tweet by an imposter Twitter handle claming to be President Ram Nath Kovind and has since been suspended.
On checking the handle name @rashtrptibhvn, in the screenshot, we found that it no longer exists and has been suspended by Twitter.
Additionally, President Kovind has an official Twitter handle (@rashtrapatibhvn) that is verified by Twitter, and the account (@rashtrptibhvn) in the screenshot is not verified.
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We then checked for the tweet on archiving website WayBack Machine and found an archive of the viral tweet.
On checking the suspended account's Twitter id - 1325042453510934530 and comparing it with President Kovind's verified Twitter handle id - 885487044243238912, we found both are different which shows that the screenshot is from a fake handle
The official Twitter handle of the President is @rashtrapatibhvn and the location in the Twitter handle is New Delhi, while the date of joining Twitter is July 2017. The Twitter handle in the viral tweet has the username @rashtrptibhvn and the location of the Twitter handle is - United States of America and the date of joining is November, 2020, which is different.
Even the bio of the fake handle in the archives reads, "President of India fan account" and has misspelt President as 'Prasident'.
(Additional inputs by Sujith A)