New Delhi: A video doing the rounds on social media claims a millionaire Indian man celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections by throwing $100 bills in the air in New York.
The post claims the man gave away $100,000 in total in Manhattan on 47th street — an area well known for diamond wholesale. People can be seen in the video rushing to grab the notes from the ground.
The caption of the post, which seems to have appeared on platforms like Facebook and Twitter Friday, reads, “Happened today on 47 street ( Diamond Market) New York $100,000 given away in ref to #modi #victory…see how this millionaire Indian doing…”
Happened today on 47 street ( Diamond Market) New York $100,000 given away.????in ref to modi victory .. see how this millionaire Indian doing .. pic.twitter.com/HChNPayZ2d
— टीकम नरयानी (@tikam53) May 24, 2019
The post has been shared by at least 99 different profiles on Facebook, and at least 26 times on Twitter, till the time this report was filed. It has also been doing the rounds on WhatsApp.
Misleading video
However, the video is quite clearly misleading, with some very telling discrepancies.
For one, the man throwing cash into the air is not Indian, and can be identified as African American rapper and musical artist TheGod Joe Kush.
Second, the video was first released on 15 May, before the Lok Sabha election results were declared.
TheGod Joe Kush had actually put up a video of the same incident on his own Facebook page, albeit from a different angle as seen in the the viral post. In the original video, he can be seen throwing $5 bills as part of a “money shower” tour, and not $100 bills as claimed in the viral post.
Lok Sabha elections
The fake video came a day after PM Modi swept the nation by winning a majority in the Lok Sabha.
The video, presumably, attempts to tap into the euphoria currently gripping India over Modi’s historic win.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.
Also read: After Modi’s win, fake video in Pakistan claims ‘Hindus killing Muslims in India’