On April 18, BJP’s National General secretary BL Santosh tweeted an image of Switzerland’s Matterhorn mountain with the message, “Matterhorn mountain in Swiss Alps lighted with tricolour in the name of HOPE after India under @narendramodi supplied HCQ tablets & leads the #Covid_19 battle… #IndiaFightsCorona”. The image shows the mountain lit up in the colours of the Indian national flag. The post has been retweeted more than 2,400 times so far.
The official Facebook page of Prasar Bharati News Services also posted the photo with the same claim.
Alt News has also received a few requests on its Android application to fact-check this image.
Fact-check
We found that the image of the Indian National flag being projected on Switzerland’s Matterhorn mountain is true. However, the claim shared along with the image that this happened after India supplied HCQ tablets to the country is false. With a keyword search on Twitter, Alt News found a tweet by the official handle of the Indian embassy in Switzerland. According to a tweet, the Indian tricolour was projected on the Matterhorn mountain to express solidarity to all Indians in the fight against COVID-19
The same photo was put out by the official Instagram handle of Zermatt Matterhorn’s tourism website. “Hope and strength to all Indians,” said the message posted along with the image.
According to the tourism website of Zermatt Matterhorn, flags of several other countries fighting the pandemic were projected on the mountain, not just the Indian tricolour. You can see the images of the mountain lit up with national flags of India, China, America, Japan, Germany, Britain, Spain, France, and Italy.
In conclusion, flags of many countries including India were projected on Switzerland’s Matterhorn mountain. A photo showing the mountain lit up with an image of the Indian national flag was shared with the false claim that it was a gesture from the country after India supplied Hydroxychloroquine tablets.