The Union government’s official public relations division Press Information Bureau expressed regret on Friday for issuing a manipulated photo of the Prime Minister surveying the flooding in Tamil Nadu a day earlier.
The clarification for the gaffe, which showed PM Narendra Modi looking outside of an aircraft window to scenery that had been merged from another photograph, came after the PIB was derided on social media for it.
“Out of the seven pictures released, one picture used the technique of merging two pictures. This happened due to error of judgment and the picture was subsequently deleted. PIB regrets the release of the above mentioned picture and inconvenience caused is regretted,” it said in a statement.
The photo was removed shortly after questions were raised about its authenticity on social media website Twitter.
The Prime Minister had made an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Chennai, its suburbs and Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts on Thursday.