BJP leaders share images from South Korea and China in a video on Noida International Airport

In the run-up to the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, the BJP government has inaugurated multiple infrastructure projects in the state. On November 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport, near Jewar in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district.

Subsequently, social media accounts associated with the government and several BJP leaders shared images or videos that show an ariel view of two futuristic airports. These images and videos laud the upcoming airport in UP.

Image 1

Hindi Twitter account of MyGovernment used the photo below as part of a video on November 24.

Other GOI accounts that shared the video with the image of this airport were — Press Information Bureau (PIB), My Government’s English Twitter account, PIB in Chandigarh, Prasar Bharati News Services, Regional Outreach Bureau, Uttar Pradesh, and the Twitter account of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti.

Similarly, BJP leaders such as MP Dr Mahesh Sharma, Assam’s National General Secretary Dilip Saikia, Union Minister Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda, Minister of State in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region BL Verma, and BJP MP Mahesh Poddar, also shared the video.

Upon performing a reverse image search, multiple results stated that this image shows Terminal 2 of Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

The image was published in a 2017 report by Korea JoongAng Daily, a South Korean-based English-language national daily. As per the report, plans to open a new terminal at Incheon International Airport in January 2018 were made by the airport’s operator three weeks prior to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Image 2

PIB UP shared a video that shows this airport in the opening few seconds. MyGovHindi and MyGovIndia also posted this video and later deleted it.

Just like the previous image, this was shared by several BJP leaders including Office of Union Minister I&B and Youth Affairs & Sports Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP VP UP Pankaj Singh and BJP VP Delhi Sunil Yadav.

Gujarati-language daily Sandesh published this image on their front page on November 26.

As in the case of the previous image, Google instantly recognised the image upon reverse image search. The image shows the Beijing Daxing International Airport in China.

A 2015 report by US-based media outlet Vice had published this image. The report said that Architect Zaha Hadid and her team were working alongside airport engineers from France-based design firm ADPI to construct the new airport. They were the winners of the competition launched by the Beijing New Airport Construction Headquarters. As per the report, the project would complete in 2018.

In 2019, Beijing-based media outlet CGTN uploaded a video of the newly constructed airport on YouTube and stated, “Beijing’s new mega airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, is nearing completion and is slated to open for business in September.”

To sum it up, images of airports in South Korea and China were shared as representative images for an upcoming airport project in Uttar Pradesh by various GoI social media accounts and BJP leaders.