A recent video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi waving at a train in Assam has gone viral on social media with many claiming that the prime minister was waving at an empty train for a photo-op.
Narendra Modi was in Assam on December 25 to inaugurate the Bogibeel bridge, the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India after which he also flagged off the Tinsukia-Naharlagun Express.
Many posts on social media even made memes and said that he was desperately seeking attention, pointing out at the shadow of a cameraman rolling just ahead of him.
There were many other posts on Facebook about the same video mocking the prime minister. The posts claimed that “defeat in five states makes people do wonders”.
Khushboo Sundar, national spokesperson of the Congress party, also shared the video on Twitter and claimed the PM was “waving at an imaginary crowd”.
The former actress also took a dig at the prime minister, saying that everything he did was staged.
Sachin Sawant, spokesperson of Congress in Maharashtra, also shared the video and said that there was nobody to wave at.
Boom searched for a video of the event and found a live video on Facebook clearly showing that there were people whom Modi was waving at and the people were also waving back. Watch the video from the 15-minute mark. The camera at 15.40 minutes also pans to the train and the train number is visible.
We also found a tweet by Press Information Bureau that reported about Modi flagging off the first passenger train at the Bogibeel bridge in Assam and was able to ascertain that there were people inside the train. The train number that was visible in the Facebook live video of the event is also very clearly visible in the image shared by the bureau.
A video on PMO India’s YouTube channel also shows that there were people present in the train who Modi was waving at.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Tinsukia-Naharlagun Express after inaugurating the Bogibeel bridge, the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India. The Tinsukia-Naharlagun Express links Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh to Tinsukia in Assam.
The inBogibeel bridge in Assam was inaugurated on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and is the part of the Assam Accord and sanctioned in 1997-’98. The foundation stone of the project was laid by the former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in 1997, as reported by The Times Of India.
This article first appeared on Boom Live.
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