Fact check: Viral Manmohan Singh tweets praising Narendra Modi are fake

An image of two apparent tweets by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is viral on social media. The text in the viral image shows that the former PM is praising present PM Narendra Modi while taking a jab at Congress saying that unlike Modi, he did not have the liberty to take decisions while he was the PM.

The image seems to be a collage of two apparent tweets by Singh and the following is written in the middle section joining the two tweets: “I am proud of Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi”. The tweets in Hindi can be translated as: 1. “I could have also taken such huge decisions for the country but the Congress never gave me that liberty, Narendra Modi makes his decisions himself which is why the country is improving.” 2. “Today I am saying this without any inhibitions, in this entire world there cannot be another leader or Prime Minister like Modi.”

Facebook user Lokesh Kumar Arya shared the image on June 6 with a caption in Hindi that said, “What should I say, Manmohan Singh ji himself said everything. Congressmen, now your reality is out in the open…”

The image is viral on WhatsApp. Some Twitter users shared it on Twitter and Facebook as well. Alt News received multiple requests to verify the image.

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Fact Check

To check the authenticity of the tweet we looked for the mentioned Twitter Handle in the images. The picture shows that the username of the account which apparently shared the tweets is ‘@manmohan_5’. We found that no such account existed.

A relevant keyword search led us to a few reports from 2021 where the same claim was debunked by some fact-checking organisations. Some of those reports also carried a tweet by Congress leader Saral Patel from 2020. In the tweet, he mentioned that the accounts claiming to be Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh were fake. If these were actual Twitter handles of the leaders, they would have the verified badge, he added. (Archive)

Tired of people asking, If this account is authentic or not. This is not the first time and won’t be the last, so making it clear for once and all.

If Sonia Ji or MMS Ji decides to come on Twitter, They will have a VERIFED twitter account.

So please don’t follow fake accounts. https://t.co/O7vwVrYaxX

— Saral Patel (@SaralPatel) June 19, 2020

The Times of India also reported on the matter.

We found several archived tweets from the account ‘@manmohan_5’ till 2021, including the ones in the viral image. The archives do not show the blue tick mark that would suggest that the account is verified.

We also came across a Facebook post from 2012 made by the official Facebook page of Manmohan Singh announcing the launch of the official Twitter account of the former PM’s office. It also had a link to the @PMOIndia Twitter page which directs to the said page with information related to the current PM of India, Narendra Modi.

Therefore, the former Prime Minister of the country does not have a Twitter account and the mentioned username in the apparent tweets does not lead to any existing Twitter account. Hence, it is clear that the image is morphed to make it look like Manmohan Singh was praising Narendra Modi. The tweets are fake.