Head of BJP IT cell, Amit Malviya, shared an image from a 2017 Food Festival organised by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi and attended by several politicians including those from the BJP, as that from Gandhi family’s visit to China in 2008.
While the Gandhis did reportedly visit Beijing in 2008 and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Communist Party of China (CPC) to enhance party-to-party ties, Malviya wrongly used an image from 2017 as an alibi to the visit.
Malviya’s tweet comes days after the “violent face-off” between Indian and Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh.
CLAIM
Malviya, in his tweet, asked that when none of the Gandhi family members held public office in 2008, why did they accept Chinese hospitality. He linked the visit to the current tensions in Ladakh by saying, “Why is the family’s interest, from Doklam to Ladakh, above national interest?”
Arun Pudur, the chief of Celframe Technology Group of Companies went a step ahead to call Rahul Gandhi a ‘Chinese Agent’ while using the same image as proof of the Congress leader’s meeting with Chinese politicians.
Pudur was under scanner recently after a US-based brewery accused him of lifting “photos from their Twitter account in order to allege he was distributing hand sanitizer to local orphanages.”
The claim was further amplified by people on Facebook with many claiming that the image is from a “secret meeting” between the Gandhi family and Chinese envoys.
WHAT WE FOUND
A reverse image search using Yandex search engine helped us find the same image uploaded on the website of the Chinese Embassy on 21 April 2017.
According to the information given on the website, the Chinese Embassy had extended invitation to several India politicians including Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi and her family to attend the China Diaoyutai Food Festival.
Among other politicians who attended the event were BJP’s Suresh Prabhu who was the then minister of Railways, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, JDU Chief General Secretary KC Tyagi and others.
DID THE GANDHI FAMILY MEET CPC REPRESENTATIVES IN 2008? YES
In 2008, under the UPA rule, the Chinese government extended an invitation to the then Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi to attend the Beijing Olympics.
According to this report by India Today dated 7 August 2008, the Congress and the Communist Party of China (CPC) signed a pact to put in place a mechanism that would help regular high-level exchanges between them, soon after Sonia Gandhi arrived in Beijing with her family for the Olympics inaugural ceremony.
While it's true that the Gandhis did visit China in 2008, an image from a 2017 event attended by representatives of several political parties is being used to insinuate that the Gandhi family had a “secret meeting” with the Chinese politicians, in wake of the rising tensions between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)
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