Recently, a photo of two air hostesses began circulating on social media. It has been claimed that one of them is Swati Kovind, daughter of President Ram Nath Kovind. The claim adds that after Tata Sons found out about Swati, the company transferred her to the Internal Affairs Office of the airline. A Facebook page posted the image with the same claim. It garnered more than 7,000 likes at the time of writing. (Archive link)
संस्कार…..🙏
आप में से कितने लोग इस महिला को जानते पहचानते हैं? इनका नाम स्वाति है!! दो महीने पहले तक जिन्होंने एयर…Posted by Shubhadra Mishra on Thursday, April 14, 2022
With the help of CrowdTangle, we found that several Facebook pages also shared this picture with the same claim.
The photo was also being circulated on Twitter.
आप में से कितने लोग इस महिला को जानते पहचानते हैं? इनका नाम स्वाति है!! दो महीने पहले तक जिन्होंने एयर इंडिया की फ्लाइट से आस्ट्रेलिया की यात्रा की होगी वो पहचान लेंगे, ये एयर इंडिया की बोइंग 777 और 787 में लम्बे समय तक फ्लाइट अटेंडेंट थीं। pic.twitter.com/aFtdHW7Cjd
— नैंसी (@gulaabjaamoon) April 15, 2022
Fact-check
The photo
Alt News performed a reverse search and found another version of the image dated 2006 on Getty Images. The image was taken during the same time as the viral picture but from a different angle. Both the images feature the same two air hostesses. It was shot when Boeing 737-800 commercial jetliner was delivered to New Delhi on November 6, 2006. This was also when air hostesses donned the new Air India uniform. The photo was taken by Ravindran from AFP.
Was Swati Kovind recently transferred?
We performed a keyword search and came across a few related news reports. On November 12, 2017, Dainik Bhaskar reported that Swati Kovind served as an air hostess on international flights going to the US, Europe, and Australia. However, when her father Ram Nath Kovind was appointed President, she was transferred to the Co-coordinator Department at the Air India Head Office. The measure was taken citing security concerns.
A 2017 Firstpost article contains an image of Swati Kovind. Comparing images of Swati with the viral image confirms that the latter does not feature her.
Furthermore, Tata Sons took control of Air India from the government in January 2022. However, Swati had been moved to ground duty citing security concerns in 2017.
The woman in the image is not President Ram Nath Kovid’s daughter Swati Kovid. However, the message is partially true as Swati used to be an air hostess but was transferred to Co-coordinator Department at the Air India Head Office in 2017.
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