Fact Check: Gold statue of PM Narendra Modi viral with misleading claim

A video showing a 156-gram gold bust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is viral on social media with users claiming that the statue was carved out in Saudi Arabia.

A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “People make statues out of wax, but in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country, they made and installed a gold statue of Modi.”

Click here to see the archive of the post.

Several X users have also shared the video claiming the same. (Click here and here to access the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that PM Modi’s gold bust was carved out by a Surat-based jeweller company in Gujarat, not Saudi Arabia.

We performed a relevant keyword search and came across a report by NDTV of January 20, 2023, titled “Surat Jeweller Carves PM's Gold Bust To Celebrate BJP’s Gujarat Win.”

As per the report, PM Modi’s gold bust was carved out by a jeweller company in Surat, Gujarat to commemorate the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory in the Gujarat state Assembly election.

The report quoting Basant Bohra, owner of the jewellery-making firm Radhika Chain, said that the bust weighed 156-gram because BJP won 156 out of 182 assembly seats in the polls held in December last year.

The report also quoted Bohra as saying, “I am a fan of Narendra Modi and wanted to make something as a tribute to him. It took around three months for nearly 20 artisans to make this bust at our factory. I am satisfied with the final outcome. There is no price tag because it is not for sale as of now.”

Media outlets The Hindu and The Indian Express also reported about PM Modi’s gold bust.

We also came across a video by News Agency ANI dated January 21, 2023, titled “Surat jeweller carves 156 gm gold idol of PM Modi to celebrate BJP’s Gujarat win.”

In the description of the video, it is mentioned that it took 25 people three months to carve out the PM’s bust.

Hence, we conclude that the gold bust of PM Modi was made in India’s Gujarat, not Saudi Arabia.