Is Kiran Bedi appointed as J&K Governor? Fact Check!

A Facebook user named ‘Chandan Singh’ shared a post on 6 June 2019. The post consists of a photograph of PM Narendra Modi and Ex-IPS officer Kiran Bedi. The post as translated from Hindi quoted “Mrs. Kiran Bedi became the new Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Sincere congratulation to Kiran Bedi. The forth coming days can be very crucial for Jammu-Kashmir.” As per this post’s claim, Kiran Bedi is appointed as the Governor of Jammu-Kashmir. Let us see what the facts are!  

NARRATIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

FacebookPost | ArchivedPost

FACT CHECK:

When we first searched the image in the post using reverse image search, we got the picture on the website of the Government of India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB), which you can see on the screenshot below. The caption of the picture in the photo gallery says that, Puducherry’s Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 June 2019.

PIBPost | ArchivedLink

This confirms that Kiran Bedi is the Lt Governor of Puducherry. After this, we found out who is the governor of Jammu Kashmir. From Google search, we came to know that Satyapal Malik is currently the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

Kiran Bedi’s official Twitter account also shows that she is the Lt Governor of Puducherry.

According to Indian Constitution, the President appoints the Governor of the state. The President’s office issues a notification. Therefore, we searched the website of the President’s Office.

The latest press release of the Governor’s appointment by the President’s Office was released on August 21, 2018. It says that Satyapal Malik is the Governor of Bihar is transferred and appointed as Governor of Jammu & Kashmir.

PressRelease | ArchivedLink

The latest press release issued by the Presidential Office on the search of the governor is on 8 March 2019. This press release states that the President has approved the resignation of Mizoram Governor Kumamam Rajshekharan.

PressRelease | ArchivedLink

This information shows that at the time writing this article, Kiran Bedi is the Lt. Governor of Puducherry and Satyapal Malik is the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. No press release of Kiran Bedi being appointed as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir has been released when this article is written.

IN CONCLUSION:

Fact Crescendo has fact checked and confirms that the photograph is being share in the post with a wrong narrative. We categorise the story as FALSE.

FactCrescendo advises its readers to refrain from sharing such misleading and communally biased photographs and do a self-check on the true narrative of such incidents before believing them.