A picture from 1994 of Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the wedding of Alpa, daughter of former Gujarat minister Hemant Chapatwala's daughter has been shared with a false claim that it shows Modi and his wife Jashodaben's photo.
On Tuesday, journalist Swati Chaturvedi, shared the photo claiming, "Does this look like a forced child marriage took you? Yet, Modi never declared this on his mandatory declaration as Gujarat CM." Chaturvedi was refering to interviews where Jashodaben has reportedly said that she was 17 when she married Modi.
BOOM found that the photo does not show Jashodaben and the woman is Alpa Vankawala (née Chapatwala) daughter of former Gujarat minister Hemant Chapatwala. We spoke to Keyur Chapatwala, in charge of Bharatiya Janata Party, South Gujarat OBC Morcha in Surat. Vankawala's brother who confirmed that its his sister in the photo, clicked at her wedding with Utpal Vankawala, who is also seen in the picture.
Chaturvedi who tweeted the photo from her verified handle, deleted it soon. You can view a screenshot below:
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Several social media users pointed out to Chaturvedi that is not a picture from PM Modi's wedding.
The same photo has been viral with the false claim in the past since 2014 as well.
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FACT-CHECK
Using a keyword search on Twitter, we found a tweet from 2014 when Ashish Chauhan, National Organising Secretary, ABVP called out the same fake claim and claimed the woman was, Vandana Chapatwala, daughter of former Gujarat education minister and BJP leader, Hemant Chapatwala.
Chauhan was referring to Pawan Khera, national spokesperson, Congress's tweet from 2014 where he shared the same fake claim.
Using this as a cue, we searched on Facebook and found a 2014 post by Keyur Hemant Chapatwala, currently handling the BJP's South Gujarat OBC Morcha wing in Surat, where he addressed the fake claim and dismissing it identified the woman as his sister, Alpa and said the picture is from her wedding in 1994.
Chapatwala in his Facebook post from April 2014 shared the photo clarifying, "Rare Picture of Modiji attending Marriage of My Sister Alpa way back in 1994. Needed to clarify due to false messages & rumors being spread intensely in social media about shri Narendra Modiji in this Pic"
We then reached out to Chapatwala who dismissed the false claims and said the photo is from 1994, during his sister Alpa Vankawala (now Chapatwala) wedding which was attended by PM Modi.
"This photo is from my sister's wedding on July 14, 1994. Its taken on the day of Alpa's wedding to my brother-in-law Utpalbhai Vankawala, which was attended by Modi," said Chapatwala. He further identified the people in the photo, the same has been labelled below.
From left - Fakirbhai Chauhan, Narendra Modi, Alpaben Chapatwala (the bride), Bhaskar Rao Damle, RSS Prant Pracharak, Utpalbhai Vankawala (the groom) and Kashiram Rana (late union minister).
Chapatwala shared with BOOM other photos from the same wedding, where PM Modi can be seen posing.
Chapatwala also sent a video to BOOM dismissing the false claims circulating on social media.
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