Viral Image of PM Modi’s Address With Lockdown Message Is Fake
The viral image is a part of a presentation made by startup founders and sent to the prime minister’s office.
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In a much-awaited and speculated address on the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, 19 March, called for a ‘Janata curfew’ on Sunday. The curfew will start from 7 am on Sunday will end at 9 pm on the same day. He stated that this will be “for the people and by the people of India.”
CLAIM
Ahead of his address at 8 pm, several social media users started circulating an image with the claim that Modi will announce national lockdown which will allegedly be applicable from 20 March and Section 144 will be imposed throughout the country.
The image shows a breakdown of the dates on which the lockdown or Section 144 will be imposed. It mentions: lockdown/section 144 from 20 March to 12 April, precautionary phase with social distancing from 18 May to 31 May, second lockdown form 18 May to 31 May, opening up phase with social distancing from June onwards.
Some users mentioned that this belongs to Modi’s presentation.
TRUE OR FALSE?
While the image has not been edited in any way, the claim along with which it is being shared is false.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The Quint found that the viral image is a part of a 10-slide-long presentation that individuals belonging to startups across the country sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.
It is a presentation made by startup founders urging the government to test more people and to adopt measures that can contain the coronavirus outbreak. The presentation is titled as ‘India should impose strict lockdowns and section 144 across major cities this week.’
Although this is presentation was sent by entrepreneurs to the PMO, it did not figure in the PM’s address.
The presentation talks about comparison between countries which acted early and which did not, analysis of the 1918 flu pandemic, recommendations for more testing, among others.
We found tweets shared by several startup founders who mentioned that they worked on the presentation in collaboration with other founders and shared the 10-slide-long presentation made by them.
The viral image is the eighth slide of the presentation.
While some founders tweeted about it, others retweeted their tweets.
Here’s the list of individuals who worked on the presentation and the names of founders who have tweeted about it have been highlighted in red.
The Quint has debunked various fake news messages about the pandemic. You can read all our fact-check stories on coronavirus here.
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