Amid the row over the ‘derogatory’ remarks by three Maldives ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a screenshot of a tweet by the Maldivian President, Mohamed Muizzu, apologising to Indians has surfaced on Internet.
The tweet reads: “I apologise to our Indian friends with folded hands on behalf of our ministers and their irresponsible comments about Prime minister Narendra Modi. Looking forward to welcoming friends from India and boosting our bilateral relations.”
The above post can be seen here. More such posts can be seen here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above screenshot, and found it to be fabricated.
Upon closely observing the screenshot of the X post, dated January 07, 2024, at 10:09 AM, we noticed the handle (@MMuizzu) which belongs to the Maldivian president.
We then scanned through the official X handle of President Muizzu (@MMuizzu) and found that the last post at the time of filing this fact check was dated January 05, 2024.
After examining Muizzu’s Twitter account activity through Social Blade — a tool that tracks posting activity, including deleted posts — it was found that no tweets were deleted by Muizzu on or after January 7, 2024. And his last tweet was on January 5, 2024, which was not related to India.
However, the Maldives government in an official statement acknowledged the inappropriate comments made by the ministers on social media, clarifying that these views are personal and do not represent the official stance of the Maldivian government.
It is to be noted that if the Maldivian president had issued such an apology, it would have been promptly carried by the national and international media.
So, we can conclusively say that the viral screenshot of the tweet attributing to the Maldivian president is fabricated.
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