Video circulated with false claim that 'Saudi Arabia made gold bust of Indian PM'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 21, 2023 at 09:55
Updated on September 21, 2023 at 09:58
3 min read
By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India

Social media users have shared a video of a gold bust of Narendra Modi with a false claim that it was made by Saudi Arabia to honour the Indian leader. The sculpture was in fact put together by a team of jewellers in the Indian state of Gujarat, its manufacturer told AFP.

A 28-second video of the bust was uploaded to X, formerly Twitter, here on September 18, 2023 and has since garnered more than 5,000 views.

The Hindi-language caption accompanying the video reads: "Statues are usually made from wax, but in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country, a statue of Modi has been installed that is made from gold. The traitors here are feeling flustered."

A screenshot of the false post taken on September 18, 2023

Comments left under the post suggested many Indians believed the claim.

"Now the kings have become the bootlickers," reads one comment, quoting a Hindi idiom and referring to the Saudis as monarchs.

The false claim has also been shared elsewhere on X here, as well as on Facebook here and here.

But the bust was in fact made by an Indian company called Radhika Chains based in the western state of Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister until 2014.

Election victory celebration

The company's owner Basant Bohra told AFP on September 15 that his company made the bust and it has since been sold to a Surat-based jewellery chain, Kalamandir Jewellers.

"All the information related to this statue that is being shared on social media is fake. It was not made by Saudi Arabia but by me and it is present in India only," Bohra said.

Bohra also told Indian news agency ANI that the bust is worth around $13,200 and it took a team of 25 craftspeople several months to carve it (archived link).

Daily newspaper The Indian Express also reported on the bust here, along with broadcaster NDTV here (archived links here and here).

A keyword search on Google found Indian newspaper Dainik Jagran uploaded a video that shows a scene similar to the misleading video on January 21, 2023 (archived link).

The headline on this report reads: "PM Modi gold statue: A gold bust of PM Modi was made in Gujarat. You will be surprised to know its worth."

The report said Radhika Chains produced the sculpture in the city of Surat to celebrate a win by Modi's political party in a local state election.

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won its seventh consecutive election in Gujarat in December 2022 (archived link).

The Dainik Jagran report says the bust weighs 156 grams to signify the number of seats in the state legislature captured by Modi's party.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the video shared by Dainik Jagran (right):

A screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the video shared by Dainik Jagran (right)

Milan Shah, the owner of Kalamandir Jewellers that bought the golden bust, told AFP on September 15 that his company still possessed the sculpture.

"We purchased this 156-gram gold statue of Narendra Modi from Radhika Chains in April 2023 and it is still with us."

AFP could not find any report about a bust or statue of Modi being made in Saudi Arabia.

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