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RTI reveals: This 'humble' photo of Modi sweeping the floor is FAKE

January 21, 2016 14:41 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had faced backlash on social media over his morphed photo during the aerial survey of flood-hit Chennai earlier this year, is now mired in a similar controversy once again.

Modi has always tom-tommed his humble 'chaiwalla' origins and used it to leverage the Bharatiya Janata Party as the right choice as against the family-run Congress and the 'privileged' Gandhis.

Now, an RTI report threatens to downsize whatever little support remains of Modi.

In 2014, a photograph of Modi sweeping the floors for a living went viral.

The Internet and his followers, who are popularly called Modi Bhakts, went on a mission to showcase his humble background.

This black-and-white photo of Modi holding a broom and cleaning a floor was in fact used in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls as a part of the party's election campaign.

While some did question the authenticity, no one could trace the origins and most left it at that.

Except for an Ahmedabad-based activist, whose RTI has revealed that the image was photoshopped.

The RTI reply said, "It is stated while the information sought does not form part of records, it may be noted that the said photograph is morphed and the person in the photo is not Mr Narendra Modi."

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