Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a video of himself at his Lok Kalyan Marg residence in which he can be spotted with peacocks. 

In no time, this post attracted criticism on social media during the ongoing pandemic. After the peacock video surfaced, several individuals began circulating pictures of PM Modi with ducks. The Congress party shared one such picture and wrote, “..leader of the 3rd most-affected country is making PR videos instead of helping his people.”

Singer Caralisa Monteiro shared another photograph of the Prime Minister where he is surrounded by ducks. PM Modi can be seen reading a newspaper in the picture while a few novels and a laptop lay beside him. She wrote, “The talent to read two books, a newspaper, and the laptop simultaneously while posing for the perfect photograph. And that poise during a Pandemic.”

Many other users share a similar image.

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found that these images of PM Modi are at least 8 years old.

First Image

The first image tweeted by Congress was found in a 2012 blog post by Sunday Guardian editorial director Madhav Das Nalapat. Madhav Das Nalapat had interviewed PM Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2012. His interview was published on Sunday Guardian and his blog post where he shared several images of PM Modi in the company of ducks. 

Second Image

A similar image to the one tweeted by Caralisa Monteiro was found in an article published on rediff.com in September 2013.

However, PM Modi can be spotted in the same clothes he has worn in the first image. Thus, this image belongs to the same day and also dates back to 2012.  He can be seen reading the identical book on former US President Barack Obama as in the first image.

Therefore, old images of Prime Minister Modi was getting viral on social media, including by Congress, as from recent times. The photographs are from 2012.