Members of Modi's BJP share Beijing terminal model images in posts hailing planned Indian airport
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 1, 2021 at 09:15
- 3 min read
- By AFP India
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"Jewar airport will put UP on the global logistics map: future-ready aviation, seamless connectivity, quick aircraft turnarounds & zero emission construction," reads the caption of the Twitter post shared by a member from India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on November 25, 2021.
The Hindi-language text overlaid on the post translates to English as: "Uttar Pradesh's growth is Jewar airport, which is a fifth in the state." The post also has an image of Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for an airport at Jewar near the north Indian city of Noida on November 25, 2021, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
A similar image was shared alongside the same claim by several Bharatiya Janata Party politicians here and here on social media.
Several other BJP politicians shared a similar claim (here, here, here and here) alongside a video in which the same image of an airport model appears at the start of the clip.
Below is a screenshot of the video at its one-second mark:
The images have been shared in a false context.
A reverse image search on Google found the original illustration published here in 2015 in an article about a new airport in Beijing.
The caption reads: "The Beijing New Airport Terminal Building will be constructed in Beijing's Daxing District and take the form of a massive mutant starfish (Image: Zaha Hadid Architects)."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the model in the misleading post (L) and model of China's airport from the 2015 article (R):
China opened the new Daxing International airport in Beijing in September 2019, as reported by AFP.
The mega-airport -- the second in Beijing -- was designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid in the shape of a starfish.
Below is a screenshot of an AFP image from June 2019, a few months before the inauguration:
The caption reads as: "This photo taken on June 28, 2019 shows the terminal of the new Beijing Daxing International Airport. Beijing is set to open an eye-catching multi-billion dollar airport resembling a massive shining starfish, to accommodate soaring air traffic in China and celebrate the Communist government's 70th anniversary in power."
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
