Fact Check: The viral picture of PM Modi staring at Rihanna is edited

Recently, a picture has gone viral on social media depicting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and singer Rihanna seated next to each other in separate chairs. The image has sparked various interpretations, Congress supporter Tanya Ghosh shared the picture with a comment suggesting that attending RSS shakhas, gatherings organized by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), turns one’s life into a pathetic joke. Tanya Ghosh implied that Prime Minister Modi’s gaze towards Rihanna was inappropriate and carried ill intentions.

Another Twitter usse and congress handle going by name rkhuria2, also shared the viral picture and wrote that a magnetic force seemed to cause Prime Minister Modi’s face to turn mysteriously, implying that there was something unusual about his expression, suggesting that the Prime Minister was staring at Rihanna with ill intentions.

Apart from this, The Wire Journalist and congress supporter Ravi Nair also shared the viral picture with similar claims.

So, is the picture of PM Modi sitting next to Rihanna while staring at her real? Let’s Fact Check.

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Fact Check

During our investigation, we first decided to cross-check the viral photo with the photo analysis website FotoForensics. Upon analysis, we saw Error Level Analysis (ELA) indicating tampering in the viral photo. This technique is used to identify potential areas of digital alteration in an image, and the presence of ELA in the picture suggests that it may have been manipulated or edited.

Now that we were convinced that the part of Rihanna in the viral picture may have been manipulated or edited, we cropped Rihanna’s part from the viral picture and did the reverse image search with it. During this, we came across a report published by Mirror on March 1, 2017. Astonishingly, the report featured the exact same picture of Rihanna captured in the pose we isolated from the viral image. Moreover, the revelation of the true context of this picture adds a new dimension to the discussion.

According to the Mirror report, the picture of Rihanna was taken in 2017 when she was adorned in an elegant off-the-shoulder dress while accepting Harvard University’s 2017 Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Continuing our investigation, we encountered yet another significant report published by ELLE on March 1, 2017, which further validates the context of the cropped picture featuring Rihanna. This report, like the previous one, showcases the same image of Rihanna striking the pose we isolated from the viral picture. The astonishing revelation brings to light another remarkable event associated with this photograph.

According to the ELLE report, the picture of Rihanna was captured on the occasion when she was bestowed with the prestigious Preacher Peter J. Gomez Award as the philanthropist of the year by Harvard University. This additional confirmation solidifies the authenticity of the image’s true purpose and origin.

Apart from this, continuing our thorough investigation, we proceeded to crop the image of Prime Minister Modi from the viral picture and conducted a reverse image search. This led us to a compelling report published on April 19, 2019, by Pro Kerala. The report contained photos capturing Prime Minister Modi in a strikingly similar outfit, seated on a chair alongside Union Minister Vijay Goel at a convention of traders held in Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium. Upon close examination, a remarkable similarity emerged between the chair, its cover, and Prime Minister Modi’s attire in both the viral picture and the images from the report.

The undeniable resemblance between the two sets of photographs strongly indicates that they were taken during the same event.

Hence, all these points prove that the viral picture of Prime Minister Modi seemingly staring at Rihanna was indeed edited and manipulated. The subsequent findings, including the verification of the original contexts of both Rihanna’s presence at Harvard University and Prime Minister Modi’s appearance at the traders’ convention, strongly support the argument that the viral picture was an attempt to defame and tarnish the image and integrity of PM Modi.

Moreover, these discoveries also shed light on the lengths to which individuals with negative sentiments towards the Prime Minister might go to propagate misleading narratives.

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