Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
China thanks Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for starting his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur and not from “Indian-Occupied Arunachal”, thus proving that Congress and China and are on the same page.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
The Congress on January 14, 2024, started its second Bharat Jodo Yatra, a year after the first one, with the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’. The 66-day, 6,700-km march began from Manipur in northeastern India and it will end in Maharashtra. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi resumed his journey in a bus from Tuli in Nagaland and reached Assam around 9:45am on Thursday, the fifth day of the yatra.
Fact
Newschecker saw that the tweets attached a purported screenshot of a tweet from China’s national English language newspaper, Global Times, appeared to be posted on January 14, 2024, which states, “Chinese Premier Xi Jinping thanks Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for respecting sovereignty of China by starting his Bharat Nyay Yatra from Manipur, instead of Indian-occupied Arunachal Pradesh”.
We ran a keyword search for “Xi Jinping thanks Rahul Gandhi Nayy Yatra”, where we did not find any news report by a mainstream media outlet on Jinping’s alleged statement nor about Jinping acknowledging the yatra.
We looked up all the social media accounts of Global Times, particularly on January 14, and its website, where we did not find any such article, confirming that the viral screenshot of a Global Times tweet is fabricated.
We have reached out to Global Times and will update this article once we receive a reply.
Also Read: Deepfake Ads Of Shah Rukh Khan, Kapil Dev And Sachin Tendulkar Endorsing Online Game Go Viral
Result: False
Source
Global Times website
Global Times Twitter account
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
