CLAIM
A photo of Jawaharlal Nehru is being shared widely on Twitter and Facebook with the claim that it shows him being held back when he wanted to retaliate after being slapped. The photo shows him being restrained by a man holding him, while he is surrounded by a crowd of other people.
The message with the photo claims that Nehru was slapped publicly at an event by Vedic scholar and the chief guest of the event, Swami Vidyanand Videh post the 1962 ‘debacle’, implying the Sino-Indian war of 1962. According to the message, Nehru was slapped because of a speech that he made in which he stated that "Aryas were refugees in India". The Swami also allegedly took the microphone and went on to refute the claim that Nehru had made and added that if Sardar Patel had been PM, the country would not have been in such a “sorry state”.
The message further sourced the information to two texts that it cited as ‘विदेह गाथा: एक आर्य संन्यासी की डायरी’ and ‘नेहरू : उत्थान और पतन’’.
The message was also being circulated on Facebook.
HOW TRUE IS IT?
There is no truth to the claim that Nehru was slapped after the 1962 war because of a statement he made. While it is true that the photo is from 1962, it is from a Congress party event in Patna and there are no reports about Nehru being slapped at this event, or any other.
WHAT WE FOUND
On conducting a reverse search on the image, we came across the photo on Outlook Magazine.
According to the caption of the photo, Nehru was being held back from “plunging into a riotous crowd in 1962, before the war”. The photo was credited to Associated Press.
Next, we searched for the photo on Associated Press’ photo archives with the keywords ‘Nehru, 1962’ and came across the original photo there.
The caption of the photo reads: “A security man grabbed Indian Prime Minister Nehru to keep him from plunging into a riotous crowd at a meeting of the Congress Party in Patna, India, January 1962. Later in the year, Communist China's attack on India plunged Nehru into new troubles.”
The caption clearly states that the photo is from an event that took place prior to the Sino-Indian War, which took place between October and November of 1962. Therefore, the photo was clearly taken before the war.
On searching through the archives of The Indian Express, we came across a report which spoke about the same incident.
According to the report, the crowd at the Congress session in Patna had become disorderly, rushing towards the dais in their attempt to catch a glimpse of PM Nehru.
According to the article, Nehru “used his fists and hit out at security men and Congress leaders who prevented him from jumping into the crowd.”
This shows that the photo is not connected in any way to the Sino-Indian war and it is being shared with a false narrative.
The Quint could also not find any reports about Nehru being slapped in public. Neither were we able to find any references to the two books cited in the message.
VIRAL PREVIOUSLY AS WELL
The same photo was also viral previously as well with the claim that people had thrashed Nehru after the Sino-Indian war of 1962.
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