Netizens have been sharing a video on Twitter claiming that Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar refused to be quarantined after a few Indian delegates at the recent G7 summit tested positive for COVID-19. A segment of the video also claims that Jaishankar broke isolation norms to meet United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Home Secretary Preeti Patel during the summit. Two members of an Indian delegation led by external affairs minister S Jaishankar to the G7 foreign ministers meeting in London had tested positive for Covid-19 in the first week of May. The summit was the “first in-person” meeting of the Ministers of G7 and partner countries after the pandemic began. Now, a clipping from a news report is viral on social media claiming that the minister refused to quarantine during the summit despite two of his team members testing positive for Covid-19.
The video was shared by Twitter user Shehnaz30 (@iraniShenaz1958) with the caption: “Indians behave carelessly at G7 as their PM behaves in India … Indian team highly insulted and advised not to take part in next month’s meeting.”
Though, on watching the viral video carefully, the logo of ‘Sky News’ was noticed. On Sky News’ YouTube handle there was a media outlet, which had uploaded a bulletin on 6th May titled: ‘Foreign Secretary defends G7 meeting after two test positive for COVID-19.’ Meanwhile, another Twitter user, Yousuf Jawed (@you_sufism), had replied to the tweet of @iraniShenaz1958, with a YouTube video link and caption, “Don’t spread fake news, the original video is here.”
The link shared by @you_sufism also led to the YouTube channel of Sky News, where the video 6th May, 2021, was published, with caption, “Foreign Secretary defends G7 meeting after two tests positive for COVID-19.”
On comparing the viral video with the YouTube bulletin, it was found that there was a clear mismatch in the voice-overs used in the two.
After 01:03 minutes in the viral video, it could be noticed that the voice of the person narrating the details is not the same as the voiceover heard in the part before this segment. Further, the part after 01:03 minutes in the viral video, where the narrator claims that Jaishankar didn’t immediately go into isolation, does not feature in the actual video uploaded by Sky News. Rather the actual news video goes on to list the highlights of the G7 meeting.
India’s External Affairs Minister and other members of his delegation went into isolation on Wednesday, 5 May, after two members of the Indian delegation reportedly tested COVID-positive. However, both Priti Patel and S Jaishankar shared the images of their meeting on 4 May, a day before Jaishankar isolated himself. According to a Tweet by S Jaishankar, after the information of two delegates testing COVID-positive came, he conducted the summit virtually. The viral video shows a series of images to claim that Jaishankar met United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Home Secretary of the United Kingdom Priti Patel later on Wednesday.
Jaishankar and Blinken tweeted images of their meeting on 3 May and 4 May respectively, strictly abiding by the COVID-19 protcols. While, Jaishankar holding a meeting without wearing a mask was tweeted on 6th May.
Thus, edited news bulletin of Sky News was circulated to falsely claim that the foreign media “insulted” the Indian delegation at the G7 meeting.
