A 30-second long video clip of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi being felicitated with a gold chain is widely circulating on social media. It is being shared with the claim that the “sultan of Arab” welcomed Modi with a 170 tola (1982.71 grams) gold chain. This video is being shared in the context of the Prime Minister’s recent visit to the UAE, where he was received by the country’s President, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This was the first meeting between PM Modi and the UAE President since the Gulf nation condemned now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s alleged derogatory remark targeting Prophet Muhammed.
Twitter user @chelamodika shared the video with a caption in Hindi saying that PM Modi was given a 170 tola chain.
ये है 170 तोला का हार… अरब के सुलतान ने मोदीजी का स्वागत ऐसे किया। pic.twitter.com/MwyOUtvqGK
— भावी विधायक , कोसली विधानसभा (@chelamodika) July 5, 2022
This video is viral on Twitter and Facebook with similar captions.
Fact-check
We performed a keyword search on YouTube and came across multiple videos of this event from two years ago. A live stream of this event can be found on the official YouTube channel of PM Modi. The video was streamed on August 24, 2019. Evidently, this is not a recent event.
The description of the video read, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the highest honour of the UAE #OrderOfZayed #PMModiInUAE #PMModiInAbuDhabi”. Taking this clue we performed a keyword search and came across various media reports about this event. According to reports, on August 24, 2019, the PM was honoured with the Order Of Zayed, by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which is the UAE’s highest civil honour presented to kings, presidents and leaders.
The photos from this event were also tweeted by PM Modi on the same day.
Humbled to be conferred the ‘Order of Zayed’ a short while ago. More than an individual, this award is for India’s cultural ethos and is dedicated to 130 crore Indians.
I thank the UAE Government for this honour. pic.twitter.com/PWqIEnU1La
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 24, 2019
We also found a document tweeted by NDTV in April 2019, which describes the medal as consisting “of a collar centred by a medallion holding the name of ‘Zayed’, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates.”
The Order of Zayed is the highest civilian decoration in the UAE
Some of the past recipients of the Zayed Medal are Russian President Vladimir Putin, former US President George Bush and UK’s Queen Elizabeth II pic.twitter.com/RcG0eagQM7
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 4, 2019
To sum it up, an old video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being conferred with the UAE’s highest civil honour was shared with a misleading claim that suggested that this had happened during Modi’s recent trip to the Gulf nation.
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