Recently, a photocard featuring a photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the branding of the mainstream media outlet Kalbela has been circulated on social media. The photocard quotes Modi as saying, “Bangladesh and Nepal are behind the mass movement in India.”

See posts circulated on Facebook with this claim here, here, and here.

Fact-check

The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation found that Modi did not make any statement about Bangladesh and Nepal’s involvement in a mass movement in India, nor did Kalbela publish any such photocard or news. Instead, the circulated photocard was created by digitally editing a different photocard from Kalbela.

At the beginning of the investigation, an observation of the photocard in question revealed the Kalbela logo, but no publication date was mentioned. Following this lead, an examination of the photocards on Kalbela’s Facebook page did not find any photocard with the alleged headline. Additionally, no news regarding this claim was found on Kalbela’s website or YouTube channel.

However, a photocard published on Kalbela’s Facebook page on September 11 was found, which bears a resemblance to the circulated photocard.

Upon examining the original photocard, it was observed that while the overall layout is similar to the circulated one, the headlines are different. Essentially, the original headline, “What the tumultuous streets of Bihar could mean for India!” was digitally replaced with “Bangladesh and Nepal are behind the mass movement in India – Modi” to create the viral photocard. Furthermore, a difference between the font of the headline on the viral photocard and the standard font used by Kalbela is also noticeable.

In the comments section of Kalbela’s Facebook post containing the original photocard, a link to a video report on the media outlet’s YouTube channel was found. This report contained no information about the alleged comment.

No news or information supporting the claim could be found in any other media outlet besides Kalbela.

Therefore, the photocard circulated in the name of Kalbela, quoting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the involvement of Bangladesh and Nepal in a mass movement in India, is edited.