A three decade old photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Dr. Sanjiv Oza, RSS leader in Germany, is viral with captions misidentifying the latter as Home Minister Amit Shah.
BOOM found that the image was taken in 1993 during PM Modi's visit to Frankfurt, Germany; Modi was photographed with Dr. Sanjiv Oza in front of the statue of Charlemagne, the medieval emperor of Western Europe in Frankfurt, Germany.
The photo is being shared with the caption, "Amit Shah 1993 Narendra Modi". The photo was also tweeted with the caption, "Little did they know that in 1993, they would be the all-powerful men in India by 2014."
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The same photo was also tweeted by film director Ram Gopal Varma with the false claim.
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We also received the same viral photo for verification on our WhatsApp Tipline number (7700906588)
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the man in the viral photo is not Home Minister Amit Shah, but Dr Sanjiv Oza, RSS leader and former Vice Chancellor of Gujarat Ayurved University.
We ran a reverse image search using Google lens and found that the same old photo was viral in May 2022 and reported by media outlets in the backdrop of PM Modi's official visit to Germany on May 4, 2022.
The 1993 photo shows PM Modi and one of his colleagues standing in front of the statue of Charlemagne, the medieval emperor of Western Europe who founded the Holy Roman Empire, reported NDTV.
However, no details regarding the man posing with PM Modi were mentioned in these news reports.
We then came across a tweet reply from May 2022 identifying the man with PM Modi as Dr Sanjiv Oza.
Taking a hint from this we searched and found that Dr Sanjiv Oza is an RSS leader in Gujarat and is the former Vice Chancellor of Gujarat Ayurved University and former organising secretary of ABVP Gujarat. We found this April 2022 Facebook post of ABVP Rajkot which has a photograph of Oza.
We also found Oza's Facebook account, where his face can be seen.
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That is me in the 1993 photo with PM Modi: Sanjiv Oza, RSS leader
Taking a cue from this, we then contacted Dr Oza, who confirmed that he is the man standing with PM Modi in the viral photo taken in 1993.
"That is me in the viral photo, I was an RSS pracharak back then and Modiji was a BJP karyakarta (worker) when we had visited Germany in September / October of 1993. We knew each other for long and had worked together in Gujarat earlier. This photo was taken in Frankfurt, Germany. Modiji visited United States that year, to join the centenary year celebrations of Swami Vivekananda's 1893 speech at the Chicago Parliament of Religions . During his return, Modiji visited Germany to understand the situation after the fall of the Berlin wall," Oza told BOOM.
"Modiji was then part of ABVP, and I was a pracharak for the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) in Europe," added Oza.
