A black and white picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to people has been shared on social media with captions claiming it shows him meeting Hindus displaced from Pakistan at a refugee camp in Barmer, Rajasthan.
BOOM found the same image shared on the prime minister's website narendramodi.in with a caption stating that the photo was clicked in Gujarat. The website further states that Modi was given charge of South and Central Gujarat and 'his travels across Gujarat continued and increased through the early 1980s. This gave him the opportunity to visit every Taluka and almost every village in the state'.
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The image has been tweeted by actor and former Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) chairperson Gajendra Chauhan with a Hindi caption which translates to 'this is a 31-year-old rare picture when Narendra Modi met Hindus displaced from Pakistan at a camp in Barmer. He was neither the chief minister of Gujarat nor the country's prime minister back then. To stand with people in their time of need is Modiji's habit'.
(Hindi: ये 31 वर्ष पुरानी दुर्लभ तस्वीर है, जब नरेंद्र मोदी बाड़मेर में पाकिस्तान से विस्थापित हिंदुओं से मिलने उनके कैम्प में पहुँचे थे. तब वो ना गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री थे और ना ही देश के प्रधानमंत्री थे. दुख, मुशीबत मे लोगों के साथ खड़ा होना मोदी जी की फितरत में शामिल है।)
The same image has been shared by multiple Facebook profiles with the same claim.
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Fact Check
A reverse image search on the viral picture took us to a gallery in prime minister's website narendramodi.in where it was uploaded under the headline 'Immersed in nation building from a very young age'.
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The caption with the picture reads 'Narendra Modi in a village of Gujarat'. The picture is shared under a subheading 'Beyond the Emergency'.
The website states that 'Like the Navnirman Movement, the Emergency was followed by a victory of the people. In the Parliamentary Elections of 1977 Mrs Indira Gandhi was routed. The people voted for change and in the new Janata Party Government, Jana Sangh leaders like Atal ji and Advani ji became important Cabinet Ministers. Around the same time, Narendra Modi was made the 'Sambhaag Pracharak' (equivalent of a regional organiser) as an appreciation of his activism and organisational work during the preceding years. He was given charge of South and Central Gujarat'.
The website further states 'His travels across Gujarat continued and increased through the early 1980s. This gave him the opportunity to visit every Taluka and almost every village in the state. This experience came very handy for him both as an organiser and as the Chief Minister'.
This confirms that the picture was clicked sometimes in the 1980s.
The website has several old black and white pictures of Narendra Modi however none of the captions say that Modi visited Barmer in Rajasthan.
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BOOM also looked up the internet for any news reports on Modi visiting Hindu refugee camp in Barmer. While we could not find any report on such a visit, we did find an article published in The Hindu on April 12, 2014 under the headline 'Modi promises equal rights to Pakistani Hindu refugees'.
Modi, then BJP's prime ministerial candidate, had said at a rally in Barmer that Pakistani Hindu refugees would be treated like other Indians.
