‘Rahul Gandhi stumped by a 14-year-old girl in Dubai’: My Nation spreads fake news  

Rahul Gandhi

A recent article published by the ‘My Nation’ portal with the headline as “Rahul Gandhi dumbfounded in Dubai by little girl’s questions”. Has created a buzz for the Congress president again.

The article claimed that during Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to Dubai, a 14-year old girl asked him two questions that perplexed him. According to the article, the questions girl asked embarrassed the Congress President who “dismissed it with a smile” and the live telecast was cut by Congress.

The first question she asked, “was on how Rahul Gandhi, who speaks about how caste distinction is rampant, embraced Hinduism while applying ashes on his forehead in Gujarat and wore the kufis (a traditional cap that Muslims wear) while visiting Kashmir.”, and the second question was, “Congress prides itself for having ruled India for several decades. The welfare and development that were not achieved then, will be done now?”

There was no video to evident the article. Soon the article was found circulating on social media. And the RBI director, Gurumurthy was seen sharing it too.

The Truth: 

During his visit to Dubai, Rahul Gandhi addressed one public event at a stadium and two other events in which he spoke to university students in one and the workers at the Labor camp in another one. He made a speech but did not take any questions, He took questions but addressed them briefly.

Later, ‘My Nation’ updated the article and added a new sentence – “During a private event where Rahul Gandhi interacted with children…”. However, there was no such event that included interaction with children in Rahul Gandhi’s itinerary.

While the misleading claim continues to be viral on social media with many pro-BJP handles sharing it, the editor of My Nation, Abhijit Majumder himself tweeting the claim.

BREAKING: Rahul Gandhi dumbfounded in Dubai with little girl’s questions | ⁦@PratibaRaman⁩ in ⁦@MyNation#RahulGandhiPressMeet https://t.co/Qky2I006rA

— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) January 12, 2019

After Abhijit Majumdar’s tweet, a statement from Arathi Krishna, the Secretary of Indian Overseas Congress came saying that there were no such questions asked and claimed the news to be fake.

I have been misquoted. I’d like to reiterate, no such question was asked at the interaction. @INCIndia @INCOverseas https://t.co/4rNPrDhfKy

— Dr Arathi Krishna (@arathikrishna68) January 14, 2019

(Courtesy: Alt News)