Home Minister Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party Delhi wing and several other prominent BJP leaders recently shared a poster featuring a photograph of India-born Australian businessman Saroo Brierly to announce the inauguration ceremony of newly constructed flats to rehabilitate the slum dwellers in Delhi.
On November 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 3024 flats built for the people who belong to economically weaker section (EWS) at Kalkaji in Delhi and handed over house keys to eligible beneficiaries. The poster was made to notify people about the event and as an achievement of the BJP-led central government.
BOOM found that Saroo Brierly is an author who rose to fame after writing a memoir about the journey to find his family in India from which he got separated in childhood.
Amit Shah tweeted the poster with a Hindi caption which translates to, "the Modi government not only makes promises but also fulfills it. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hand over the keys of happiness to the people who live in slums in Delhi. Modi ji will give 3024 EWS flats to the people in Delhi."
(Original Text in Hindi: सिर्फ घोषणाएँ नहीं बल्कि जनता से किए अपने वादों को पूरा करती है मोदी सरकार। प्रधानमंत्री श्री Narendra Modi जी आज दिल्ली में झुग्गी-झोपड़ी में रहने वाले लोगों को देंगे उनकी ख़ुशियों की चाबी। मोदी जी द्वारा दिल्ली में 3024 EWS Flats लोगों को दिए जाएँगे।)
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The official handle of the BJP's Delhi unit also made a similar claim while sharing the poster.
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Several other BJP leaders such as former union education minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, MP Hardwar Dubey, BJP Rajasthan Vice President Chandrakanta Meghwal too took their official social media handles to share the poster corroborating the same.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on TinEye and found a Daily Mail article published on January 13, 2017 carrying the same image. The photo caption there reads, "Unbroken bond: Saroo with his mother Fatima Munshi and his Indian family".
The article, written by Saroo Brierly, narrates the journey of tracking down his first family using Google Earth after being separated when he was five years old. The Oscar-nominated movie 'Lion', starring actors Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, was filmed based on his memoir 'A Long Way Home'.
We also found the same picture was published by Hindustan Times and Mint in 2013 to report about his fascinating journey to find home from Australia to India.
Taking a cue, we searched for 'A Long Way Home' book and found his biography on its publisher Penguin's website.
The biography says, "Saroo Brierley was born in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India. In 1986, when he was aged only five, he lost all contact with his family when he became lost and was separated from his older brother at a train station in India. He never saw his brother again. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Calcutta, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a family in Australia."
It further adds, "He grew up with his new parents in Hobart, Tasmania for the next 25 years. Saroo's virtual odyssey of his homeland and search for his hometown and his mother made headlines across the world in 2012. His full story is recounted in his internationally bestselling autobiography, A Long Way Home, young readers' edition Lion: A Long Way Home and picture book Little Lion: A Long Way Home. The film Lion, based on his autobiography, was released in November 2016 and nominated for four Golden Globe and six Academy Awards, and won many other international awards."
An interview of Saroo Brierley about his journey can be seen below.
Amar Ujala journalist Pradeep Pandey first pointed out the BJP's gaffe of using Brierly's image as a stock photo.
