Maharastra Information centre tweets pictures of National Maritime Museum London as of museum in Mumbai

A screenshot of a tweet by the official Twitter handle of Maharastra Information centre which depicted the purported images of National Maritime museum, Mumbai, is circulating on social media.

Alt News looked up the Twitter handle and found that the tweet no longer existed on the timeline of Maha Info Centre. Looking further, we did a Twitter search using the keywords, “National Maritime museum Mumbai” and found a year old tweet by Maha Info Centre with the same narrative. This tweet had the same image as seen in the screenshot of the tweet by Maha Info Centre which was later deleted.

Interestingly, both the images have a Union Jack which is the national flag of the United Kingdom hoisted on the top of the building.

National Maritime Museum #Mumbai, setup by #IndianNavy. Preserves the historical treasures obtained from other countries #VisitMaharashtra pic.twitter.com/uzOcTDVMXp

— MAHA INFO CENTRE (@micnewdelhi) August 11, 2017

London, not Mumbai

Alt News reverse searched the image in question on Google and found that the image is representative of the National Maritime museum, London and NOT Mumbai. Rajendra Bhaduri, a Facebook user was the first to point out the blunder by Maha Info Centre.

To ascertain this, we looked for the generic images of the museum in London, England available on Google. A similar image from different perspective can be seen below.

Misrepresentation traced to travel websites

Several Maharashtra tourism websites, articles and blogs have presented these photographs as the museum in Mumbai. A website named, Mumbaionline.in had also posted this image claiming it is the National Maritime museum, Mumbai. Several other websites including lordbuddhastory.com, onlinetravelguide.com and exploremaharastra.blogspot.com have also posted the same image as National Maritime Museum, Mumbai with identical text. Alt News found that the first instance was of 2011.

Mumbai Heritage, a Facebook Page had also posted this image claiming the same.

Moreover, the text in tweet by the Maha Info Centre on December is identical in comparison to the introductory paragraph of the article posted by Onlinetravelguide.com.

Ironically, the official handle Maha Info Centre had also tweeted the images of the actual museum, known as Ballard Bunder Gatehouse, with a message, “It’s a #Maritime museum built in 1920”. Ballard Bunder Gatehouse, a heritage structure was converted into a maritime museum.

Ballar Bunder Gatehouse: In #Mumbai It’s a #Maritime museum built in 1920. It houses giant 6 ft tall anchors & lights that are knee high & were once atop of light house. It also houses old maps & photographs of Mumbai.#VisitMaharashtra#MuseumsInMaharashtra pic.twitter.com/nnKg57HdAl

— MAHA INFO CENTRE (@micnewdelhi) November 27, 2018

It is rather unfortunate that an official handle of a government agency has used photographs of a London museum and tried to portray them as the National Maritime Museum of Mumbai. Even though the presence of the Union Jack in the photograph was a clear giveaway, Maha Info Centre failed to spot it.