Over five years to 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made at least 45 false or misleading claims. These include claims on issues such as economic growth during the current and previous governments, this government’s achievements on key issues such as job creation, financial inclusion, social security and benefits transfer, as well as the current government’s flagship programmes such as Swachh Bharat Mission and Jan Dhan Yojana.
FactChecker collated such claims from a variety of sources, including Prime Minister Modi’s speeches and the Twitter handles Prime Minister’s Office, Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The time period was from May 26, 2014, the day Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister, until February 28, 2019, one month before Lok Sabha elections were announced.
The claims were checked for veracity and accuracy using various sources, such as: government websites that put out annual reports or official dashboards that monitor project progress; answers provided to members of Parliament in the lower and upper houses, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha; reports from international organisations; and our previous reporting.
This is an ongoing tracker, and we intend to continue this effort once the new government takes charge post the general elections.
FactChecker is India’s first dedicated fact-checking initiative, set up in 2013 to scrutinise for veracity and context statements made by individuals in public life. FactChecker is also India’s first such initiative to be a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles.