Former Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar has landed in controversy by sharing a fake morphed photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media. In the photo shared by Sircar on Twitter, PM Modi is seen bowing with folded hands to the chairperson and founder of Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani.
Sharing the photo of the PM, Sircar wrote in a tweet, "Wish fellow parliamentarians and others in politics also received such courtesy and bonhomie — from their permanently-scowling PM. In a mature democracy, we would know the two-way relationship, favours, transactions. Some day, history will tell us."
However, Sircar deleted the photo after users pointed out that it is fake.
Claim
Photo of PM Narendra Modi bowing with folded hands to Mukesh Ambani's wife Nita Ambani.
Fact Check
This is a morphed photo. The face of Nita Ambani has been put in place of someone else. We found that the original photo is from 2018 and shows PM Modi greeting a social worker, Deepika Mondol, who was visiting the Rashtrapati Bhawan for an event with her husband, Samar Mondol.
Deepika Mondal runs an NGO called Divya Jyoti Cultural Organisation and Welfare Society.
Current CEO of Prasar Bharati, Shashi Shekhar Vempati reprimanded Sircar for sharing the morphed image. He said, "Disgusting & shameful that a morphed image is being circulated in this manner. It is one thing to not like a person. But it is reprehensible that a former CEO of the Public Broadcaster and former Culture Secy is publicising fake images. We are truly embarrassed by these actions."
Kanchan Gupta, a veteran journalist and former advisor to Atal Bihari Vajpayee slammed Sircar and wrote, "A former Secretary to Govt of India is intentionally tweeting morphed images to slander PM Modi. @Twitter provides a platform for #ManipulatedMedia and rewards such folks with a ‘Blue Tick’ to lend credibility to #FakeNews. This is how @manishm does the bidding of @jack Company."
The image shared by Sircar is fake and has gone viral on social media before as well. Earlier, the woman in the original image was misidentified as Priti Adani, wife of Gautam Adani who is the chairman of the Adani Group.
