Aviation Minister calls out 'morphed' airport sign saying 'eating carpet prohibited'

Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday issued a clarification over an old image of that is doing rounds on social media. The image is a 'mistranslated' airport sign that has gone viral on social media even in the past. Hardeep Singh Puri, therefore, stated that the image is morphed. The Aviation Minister also that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had issued a clarification on the morphed sign in 2019 as well. 

Hardeep Singh Puri issues clarification over morphed airport sign 

The morphed airport sign reads "Eating carpet strictly prohibited" in English, while in Hindi it reads "Farsh par khaana sakht mana hai". The Hindi sentence literally translates to "Eating on the floor is strictly prohibited." Puri had to issue the clarification after the sign resurfaced on social media earlier this week. The user who tweeted it had suggested that AAI needs Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's help to correct the language on the sign. Tharoor, therefore, retweeted the now-deleted image and said "They are incorrigible". 

"Let us all do a bit of due diligence before putting such things out. Fake images and morphed pictures don’t do any good to people who are posting them," said Hardeep Singh Puri.

As per reports, the sign was first photographed back in 2015 at Chennai Airport by a businessman who had uploaded it on Facebook. In addition, actress Shabana Azmi had also shared the picture back in 2019 on her Instagram profile, thereby leading to AAI's response stating that it was fake.