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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,753 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

আব্দুল কালাম আৰু ৰাম নাথ কোবিন্দৰ ৰেলযাত্ৰাৰ ফটোৱে পৰৱৰ্তী ৰাষ্ট্ৰপতিগৰাকীয়ে লাভ কৰা বিশেষ সুবিধাক দৰ্শাইছে

Publisher’s rating: বিভ্ৰান্তিকৰ।

The post compared photos of Abdul Kalam and Ram Nath Kovind travelling by train and suggested that Kalam used an ordinary coach while Kovind travelled in a first-class AC coach. Fact Crescendo’s review says the comparison is misleading because the images show journeys from different circumstances, and Kalam’s photo was taken when he was no longer president. The review identifies the image as showing Kalam arriving by train in Rourkela in 2010; it also notes that he served as president from 2002 to 2007. The review says Kovind’s image was from his journey to his birthplace, Paraunkh, on 25 June 2021, aboard a special train arranged for the president. It cites a government press statement describing this as the first presidential train journey in 15 years, and says the previous such journey was Kalam’s 2006 trip from Delhi to Dehradun for the Indian Military Academy’s passing-out ceremony. The review also notes that Kalam travelled by presidential special train on several occasions while he was president. Thus, the photos do not establish that a sitting president received a privilege denied to Kalam: the Kalam photo used in the comparison was from after his presidency, while the review says he had also made special-train journeys during his time in office.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Tamil Nadu govt not dropped the monthly allowance scheme of Rs 1000 for homemakers

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a social-media post alleging that the Tamil Nadu government had announced that a ₹1,000 allowance for ration-card households was not feasible. It traced the post to a screenshot of an online news story and says that Facebook user ChandraMouli Balakrishnan shared it on July 12, 2021. The screenshot’s headline attributed the announcement to the state government, but the review found that the story’s text did not identify an official announcement or name a minister or the Chief Minister as its source. The review also checked the news item after finding it on Seithipunal and in a Dailyhunt version. It reports that the headline had been changed on Seithipunal amid social-media sharing, while the Dailyhunt headline remained unchanged. In the story text, the review found only the unsupported assertion that the scheme could not be started at that time. To check whether the government had made the claimed announcement, the reviewers contacted Food Minister R. Sakkarapani’s office. An aide said no such announcement had been made and referred them to the Chief Minister’s private secretary. The review says the Chief Minister’s Office then described the report as false and said it had issued no such announcement. On that basis, the review concluded that the claim of an official government announcement was false.

FACTLYPolitics & government

BBC article reporting Rahul Gandhi as the third most trustworthy leader in the world

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media screenshot purporting to show a BBC article saying a “Gallop International” survey ranked Rahul Gandhi third among the world’s most trustworthy political leaders and Narendra Modi 65th. FACTLY examined whether the BBC had published the article and whether the attributed survey existed. It reports that searches of BBC News found no such article, and that keyword searches found no news reports confirming the claimed ranking. The review also says the survey organization had not conducted a poll of the world’s most trustworthy political leaders. FACTLY compared details in the screenshot with BBC material that it could identify. The stories shown beside the screenshot’s top-story section were published by BBC in the first week of June 2016, while the purported Gandhi article carried an earlier date. The review says the screenshot appeared on social media only from 3 June 2016, and notes a formatting discrepancy: BBC articles displayed “11 January 2016,” whereas the screenshot showed “11 Jan 2016.” FACTLY presents these details as evidence that the screenshot was altered. The review further checked the survey organization’s listed categories and rankings. It says a “World’s Trustworthy Leaders” survey was not among the categories on the organization’s website and that Rahul Gandhi did not appear in its “Global Leaders” rankings or its “Rating World Leaders” surveys. It distinguishes those lists from the claimed ranking: Narendra Modi, not Rahul Gandhi, was listed third in the 2017 “Global Leaders” list and fourth in the 2018 list. Taken together, the review’s checks do not support the screenshot’s attribution to BBC or the claimed survey result.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Abdul Kalam and Ram Nath Kovind’s train travel pictures show the preferential treatment the latter received

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim compares a picture of Abdul Kalam beside a train with one of Ram Nath Kovind, using the contrast to suggest that Kalam travelled in a general coach while Kovind received preferential treatment in a First-Class AC coach. The review says the pictures depict different occasions, so they do not establish that contrast: Kalam’s photo was taken in 2010, after his presidency, while Kovind’s was taken when he arrived in Lucknow on a special Presidential train on 28 June 2021. The article identifies the comparison as misleading. To trace the Kalam image, the review reports a reverse-image search that found the same picture in a New Indian Express photo collage. Its caption identified the scene as Kalam arriving by train at Rourkela in 2010. The review also cites a Times of India account that he chose to take the train to Rourkela when bad weather threatened his visit to the National Institute of Technology there. Kalam had been president from 2002 to 2007, so this image does not show his travel while in office. The article also notes that train travel was not unique to Kovind: it says Kalam used the special Presidential train during his presidency, including journeys in 2003, 2004 and 2006. It reports that Kovind had travelled on a special Presidential train to visit his native village on 25 June 2021, and says the government described the 2006 journey by Kalam as the last time an incumbent president had travelled by train. The two compared photos therefore do not support the claim that one president used ordinary accommodation while the other received special treatment.