Islamabad
To cover up the flop visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United Nations General Assembly and meet the US leadership, Indian social media (SM) picked up steam, churning out a fake interview of the head of the largest democracy to the New York Times.
Images of the Indian Prime Minister’s huge portrait on the upper half of the main page of the New York Times went viral on Indian social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp groups with praise being lavished on the premier and for making India proud.
The screenshot featured a large photograph of PM Modi along with the headline “Last, Best Hope of Earth” and the strap “World’s most loved and most powerful leader is here to bless us”, referring to Modi’s US visit on September 24-25. The edition is dated September 26, 2021.
The image of the purported NYT front page was circulated en masse on Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp group chats, with messages like “Proud of my PM” accompanying it.
One of the widely shared WhatsApp groups forwarded the photograph with a caption: “Modi ji on the front page of the United States’ biggest newspaper. What could be a greater matter of pride than this?”—APP
