A set of images featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking a holy dip in a river has gone viral on social media. It is claimed that the Prime Minister took the holy dip in Uttar Pradesh during the ongoing Kumbh Mela. Facebook pages- We Support Nationalism , I Support Modi, and Akhand bharat have shared the images with the identical narrative, garnering a combined share count of nearly 4,000.

Several other individuals on Facebook and Twitter have shared the images with the same narrative.

Ujjain Simhastha (2004)

Alt News did a Google reverse image search and found an article published in May, 2016. In the year 2004, PM Modi had taken a holy dip during the Ujjain Simhastha, one of the four religio-cultural fairs widely recognised as the ‘Kumbh Mela’. A report by Patrika ascertains that Narendra Modi was at the 2004 Ujjain Simhastha held every 12 years on the banks of the Shipra river. These images pertain to that event.

In conclusion, the set of images viral on social media featuring the Prime Minister are old and unrelated to the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh. Those who are sharing these images would be well aware that every public appearance of the Prime Minister is widely covered, and had the PM visited the Kumbh mela, it would have been reported across all mainstream media outlets. Despite such obvious fallacy, various propaganda pages that favour the BJP tried to mislead their audience.

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About the Author

Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.