‘British Herald’ Featured Narendra Modi in 2019, Not During COVID-19 Pandemic

The photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the cover of a magazine called British Herald has been shared by several social media users. A claim that is being shared with the photograph states that Modi was recently described as the “World’s Most Powerful Person” for his "efforts in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and helping other countries with vaccines".

However, we found that the magazine cover was not a recent one and was instead published in 2019, after the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the 2019 General Elections. However, several news websites had questioned the credibility of the poll which was used to call Modi the “World’s Most Powerful Person”.

We also didn't find any recent article on the magazine's website praising Modi for his handling of COVID-19.

Claim

The photograph of Narendra Modi was shared with a text that read, "The leader who handled the crisis best and steered his country to help other countries with Covid Vaccine, Manufacturing. Projected growth of 11.5% for 2021."

"The British Herald got Narendra Modi on the cover, with a fabulous description - 'World's most powerful person'," it further said.

An archive of the post can be found here.

The image was shared by several users on Facebook and Twitter, archives of which can be found here, here and here.

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What We Found Out

Upon conducting a reverse image search on Google, we found that image of the magazine cover was first released in May 2019, following BJP's win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

An archive of the post can be found here.

Several Indian news organisations, such as DD News, Zee News, and Republic TV, published reports that talked about the magazine having Modi on its cover. The BJP leaders and followers of Modi had also shared the stories on their social media handles.

The image was also published in an article on the magazine's website on 16 June 2019, which said that Modi was chosen as the ‘World’s Most Powerful Person 2019’ based on a readers’ poll. The article said that "more than 25 world icons were in the nomination list and a judging panel of experts named four final candidates for the prestigious title". The article has since been removed from the website.

Several news and fact-checking websites had raised questions regarding the credibilty of the poll and pointed out that the methodology and sample size of the poll was not made clear in the article.

We also conducted a search on the the British Herald's website for stories on Modi's handling of COVID-19 and didn't find any article on it. An advanced search on Twitter didn't yield any results either.

Evidently, an old image was shared with a false claim that the UK-based British Herald magazine had recognised Modi as the "World's Most Powerful Leader" for his handling of COVID-19 and vaccine production.

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