Fact Check: Were The Slums In Gujarat Covered During UK PM Boris Johnson’s Visit?

Once again Gujarat model is on-trend on social media platforms. Sharing some pictures users are claiming that Gujarat officials were hiding slums during UK PM Boris Johnson’s visit. Further, @MomiShukhsingh tweeted, “During UK PM Boris Johnson’s visit, slum area near Sabarmati Ashram was covered with white cloth, see pictures.”

https://twitter.com/MomiShukhsingh/status/1517177005824950273

Similarly, sharing an image, Dr. Arindam Chaudhuri wrote the caption, “When you try to hide the way you have kept your people…. Hundred years back in the west one wouldn’t have found such scenes. Our Politicians are great!!!!! NB the post has been edited to remove the partial inaccuracy pointed out.”

Many other users also shared the same picture on their user handle.

Fact Check

On reverse image search we found the same picture in a year old tweet of @ahmedabadmirror. The caption of  the post is, “Slum residents of #ParikshitNagar in #Ahmedabad peep from the covers that block their view of the route to #SabarmatiAshram. PM @narendramodi is expected to begin the 75th anniversary of India’s #Independence #Day #celebrations.”

Slum residents of #ParikshitNagar in #Ahmedabad peep from the covers that block their view of the route to #SabarmatiAshram. PM @narendramodi is expected to begin the 75th anniversary of India's #Independence #Day #celebrations

Credit : @AsikBanerjee pic.twitter.com/KHn7ItjgG4

— Ahmedabad Mirror (@ahmedabadmirror) March 12, 2021

Moreover, we found similar images in a tweet of @AncelaJamindar with the same picture. She also shared the picture on March 12, 2021, with the caption which nearly translates into English, Come play hide and seek one more time. Hiding the slums once again??

Aao chupan chupaai khele ek aur baar..
Hidding the slums once again??#DandiYatra #MahatmaGandhi #DandiMarch #Ahmedabad pic.twitter.com/UtroZPhz5D

— Ancela Jamindar (@AncelaJamindar) March 12, 2021

Conclusion

Hence, from our analysis it is clear that the viral image is old. And, the claims related to it is misleading.

DFRAC Editor

Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre (DFRAC) is a non-partisan and independent media organisation which focuses on fact-checking and identifying hate speech. With the popularisation of the internet came the challenge of information overload and often times, our feeds are overpopulated with conflicting, incendiary and false information which is increasingly becoming difficult to ignore and not believe in

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