Congress Handles Claim Indira Gandhi’s Leh Photo to Be From Galwan

The Quint’s WebQoof team found that the image shows Indira Gandhi addressing jawans in Leh and not in Galwan Valley.

Several Congress accounts falsely claimed that the image showing Indira Gandhi addressing jawans is from Galwan Valley.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of former prime minister Indira Gandhi addressing soldiers in 1971 was shared by several Congress Twitter handles with the claim that it is from Galwan Valley, the place that witnessed violent face-off between Indian Army and Chinese PLA soldiers on 15 June.

However, we found that the image is actually from Leh and not Galwan Valley, as claimed.

CLAIM

Ali Mehdi, vice president, Congress Delhi, tweeted the image claiming that the image is of Indira Gandhi addressing Indian army soldiers in the Galwan Valley.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

The image was also shared by official handle of Youth Congress and UP Congress, who have now issued a correction.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

Several social media users shared the image on Facebook with a similar narrative.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We reverse searched the image on Google and found that a website called art-sheep had published the image with the caption: “One of the rare pictures of former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi addressing jawans in Leh in 1971.”

The website mentioned that the image is from Leh.(Source: art-sheep/ Screenshot)

Fact-checking website BOOM came across a tweet that mentioned the source of the image as ‘PTI Photo/ Courtesy DPR Defence’.

Consequently, we searched photo archives of PTI with the keywords “Indira Gandhi Leh” and found the viral image with the caption: “**EDS: FILE PHOTO** New Delhi: In this undated file photo former prime minister late Indira Gandhi addresses jawans in Leh, in 1971. (DPRO/PTI Photo)(PTI22-06-2020_000166B) (sic)”

The caption clearly specifies Leh as the location and not Galwan Valley.

The image was available in PTI archives and mentioned that it was from Leh.(Source: PTI Archive/ Screenshot)

It is noteworthy that the distance between Leh and Galwan Valley is nearly 219 kilometres and takes over six hours to travel.

Evidently, an image of Indira Gandhi addressing the jawans in Leh in 1971 was circulated with the false claim that the image is from Galwan Valley.

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