The photo, of the soldiers in and boarding an aircraft, had caption claiming Modi government had ensured air travel for soldiers. It has been shared by over 500 Facebook users.
New Delhi: In another instance of fake news seeking to play up Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s achievements, a photograph claiming that Modi has ensured air travel for soldiers has been doing the rounds on social media.
The photograph was part of a collage of pictures first posted on Facebook on 1 November by a user named Govind Hindustani. It was posted as a status on a public group on Facebook, ‘Hindustani’, with claims that they were proof of the progress made by India under Modi.
The caption below the photograph of the soldiers reads, “For the last 60 years of Congress rule, our Army soldiers had to travel besides the toilet of the general compartment of the Indian Railways, social media users shared the image to PM Modi and the then rail minister Suresh Prabhu and after this, they made flight arrangements for them”.
While the post with multiple photos was shared by over 20,000 Facebook users, the photo of the ITBP personnel alone has received over 5,000 reactions and has been shared by more than 500 users.
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Picture ITBP personnel on poll duty
The photo, however, has nothing to do with any government policy or even the Army.
It is from the 2016 Kerala assembly elections, when personnel of Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force, a paramilitary force, were airlifted to the southern state from Kolkata.
The picture is genuine but the arrangement was made by the Election Commission as a one-time affair only.
“During the 2016 Kerala Assembly elections, few companies of the ITBP had travelled via aircraft to save time,” an ITBP officer told SM Hoaxslayer. “It is rare to send companies by air,” the official added.
The official also confirmed that such air travel arrangements weren’t made again for ITBP personnel.
ITBP personnel have been deployed for election duty since 1980, and all arrangements for their travel are made by the Election Commission of India in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.