THE CLAIM
Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit recently tweeted a video that outlines former Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s behaviour during what he claims is “Prime Ministership of Dr Manmohan Singh”.
The filmmaker, in his tweet on Wednesday, 6 March, said, “Once during Prime Ministership of Dr Manmohan Singh, Sri Lankan PM came to India on diplomatic visit. Kindly watch this video. Rest is left to your observation skills. (no politics behind). Good night.”
The tweet was retweeted over 6,187 times and was liked by 8,404 people at the time this story being filed. It also saw replies by several people, condemning Sonia Gandhi’s behaviour.
‘REMOTE-CONTROLLED PM’
The same video was shared by a Facebook page called ‘PMO India: Report Card’ slamming Sonia Gandhi and Congress for ‘belittling the highest office of our country’, stating that this video is from the time when Dr Manmohan Singh held the Prime Minister’s office, ie before 2014. At the instance where Gandhi is seen asking Dr Singh to take a seat, the video goes on to say that “this is what a remote-controlled PM looks like”. It further says, “They reduced the Prime Minister’s Office to a rubber stamp. The party that could not even respect their own prime minister can hardly be expected to respect Narendra Modi”.
At the time of publishing this story, the video had over 2,000 reactions and shares on Facebook.
TRUE OR FALSE?
However, the claims made in these posts about the aforementioned meeting between Congress members Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are factually incorrect.
The social media posts focus on pointing out that Sonia Gandhi has 'insulted' Dr Singh by walking ahead of him and asking him – 'the prime minister' – to take just another seat next to her, while she takes the seat next to the Sri Lankan PM.
The video shared by Ashoke Pandit in his tweet can be traced to YouTube, by news service NNIS, titled ‘Sri Lanka PM Holds Talks With Sonia Gandhi And Manmohan Singh’. The video was published on 26 April 2017, when the Sri Lankan Prime Minister was visiting India, reported news agency ANI – the year when Manmohan Singh was not the Prime Minister of India.
Contrary to the claims made by Ashoke Pandit and Facebook page ‘PMO India: Report Card’, the incident is not from Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure in UPA regime.
The Sri Lankan PM held a meeting with the Congress delegation in 2017, at a time when Sonia Gandhi was the president of the party – which explains why she took the seat next to the Sri Lankan PM as opposed to Manmohan Singh.
In a tweet that dates to the same time, the Sri Lankan PM had mentioned meeting the two Congress leaders.
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