A viral photo of President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, with their hands folded, during a photo op is being shared with a misleading claim that the three greeted Prime Minister Modi with a namaste who did not return the gesture.
BOOM found on checking the live broadcast of the event that all the four leaders were posing and had their hands folded in the 'namaste' gesture for a photo-op. We also found that Prime Minister also had his hands in the same gesture and that the viral photo shows the seconds after Modi put his hands down, while the others were then holding the 'namaste'.
On December 6, 2023, several leaders including PM Modi, President Murmu, Vice President Dhankar, Lok Sabha speaker Birla were at the Parliament for an event paying tribute to Dr B R Ambedkar on his death anniversary. The photo is from the same event.
The photo is being shared with a caption in Hindi that translate to, "Lok Sabha Speaker, Vice President, President, do these posts have any dignity left now?" The caption with the post reads, "Standing with folded hands Lok Sabha Speaker, Vice President And Her Excellency the President also standing in front with hanging hands towards Prime Minister Modi ji"
"In Hindi -हाथ जोड़े खड़े हैं लोकसभा अध्यक्ष, उपराष्ट्रपति जी व महामहिम राष्ट्रपति जी सामने हाथ लटकाकर खड़े हैं प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी व अन्य नेतागण"
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The same photo is being shared widely on Facebook with misleading claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photo captures the moment PM Modi put down his hands and turned to walk after having posed with President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla. PM Modi first greeted the camerapersons with a namaste and a second later, the other three too followed the same.
On viewing the live broadcast of the event, we can see the sequence from the 9.38 minutes timestamp.
PM Modi first does namaste (as visible in the first photo below), and a second later President Murmu, Vice President Dhankhar and Lok Sabha speaker Birla also fold their hands, with all of them looking towards the cameramen (as seen in the second photo).
We can also see the photographers and camerapersons present there who the four leaders are looking towards while making the gesture.
Photo 1
Photo 2
After the above two sequence of events, PM Modi turns to start walking away, which is the exact moment captured in the viral photo and shared with a misleading claim.
The above frame is being shared out of context to make the false claim that Modi refused to greet the three leaders even as they stood with their hands folded towards him.
This whole sequence of events can be seen in the below live stream from 9.38 seconds to 9.42 seconds
