Misleading claims about PM Modi celebrating Diwali every year with army soldiers and in the jungle. Read more
Claim
Why does PM Modi lie so brazenly? Two days ago, on Diwali, PM Modi visited our jawans in Lepcha, HP, and said “I have celebrated EVERY Diwali in the last 30-35 years with our jawans” But, in Jan 2019, PM Modi said in an interview that he “spent every Diwali by going to the jungle.” Now which is true: Every Diwali for 30-35 years with Armed Forces jawans or every Diwali spent in the jungle?
Rating
Explanation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated this year’s Diwali with the Indo-Tibetan troops engaged in border security operations at Lepcha village in Himachal Pradesh. Speaking at the event, he said, “Every year I celebrate Diwali with our soldiers. For the last 30-35 years I have never celebrated Diwali without soldiers. Even before becoming Prime Minister or Chief Minister, I have been coming to any border and celebrating Diwali with soldiers,” on November 12, 2023.
Wait a minute…🤔 pic.twitter.com/OiOkHhFDF1
— Cow Momma (@Cow__Momma) November 13, 2023
In this case, in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “Not many people know this, but I would go away for the 5 days of Diwali. Somewhere in a jungle- a place with only clean water and no people”.
Since both statements are contradictory, social media users are posting this and questioning and mocking our Prime Minister and pointing out his lies. Some users even went on to add that PM is so desperate regarding the upcoming 2024 elections that he doesn’t remember what he spoke about. Similar mocking claims can be seen here and here.
What’s the truth?
After analyzing the news circulating, we found out that, on January 23, 2019, The Print published an article about the interview given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Facebook page namely ‘Humans of Bombay.’ In it, he was seen talking about spending five days every Diwali in the jungle to reflect on life during his youth.
He further added, “Not many people know this, but I would go away for the five days every Diwali. Somewhere in a jungle, a place with only clean water and no people. I would pack enough food to last for those five days. There would be no radio or newspapers, and during that time, there was no TV or internet anyway,” Modi said.
Through the above article, we know that what he was talking about in the interview was his memories of his youth. Secondly, we analyzed the recent statement of our PM celebrating Diwali for the last 30-35 years with our Jawans.
While searching we got to know that Prime Minister Modi celebrated Diwali with the security forces in Siachen in 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre. In 2015, he visited three memorials in Punjab and celebrated Diwali to honor the victories of the Indian Army in the ‘1965 War’.
This was followed by Indo-Tibetan Border Police in Sumdo in Himachal Pradesh in 2016, Gurez sector in North Kashmir in 2017, Harsil in Uttarakhand in 2018, Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, Longewala in 2020, Kashmir’s Nowshera in 2021 and Kargil in 2022 confirmed that Prime Minister Modi has celebrated Diwali with Army soldiers according to an article published by Hindustan Times.
On further search, we learnt that PM Modi had celebrated Diwali with Army soldiers at the Nathu La pass in Sikkim in 2009 as well.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now 73 years old. According to his statement, 30 or 35 years ago, he must have celebrated Diwali with army men since he was 43 or 38 years old. However, it is noteworthy that we do not have any data about him celebrating Diwali with army personnel in the years prior to 2009. But, the interview given by him to ‘Humans of Bombay’ as he would just go away to a jungle every Diwali to reflect on himself is about his young age memories.
Yes, both statements are contradictory, but he has said both referring to different timelines.
Conclusion:
In our search, we conclude with Modi’s contradicting speech about his Diwali celebrations with Army soldiers for the past 30-35 years and that he goes to a jungle for five days every Diwali, both refer to different periods of his life. It can be learned that his statement of celebrating Diwali in the jungle was in his youth times and the celebration of Diwali with army soldiers is after his political life and he even started celebrating it when he was a chief minister.
Kindly note we have attached data of PM Modi celebrating Diwali with army soldiers from 2009 but we don’t have any data before that.
