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
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge did not applaud when PV Prabhakar Rao, son of PV Narasimha Rao, received the Bharat Ratna on behalf of his father.
Fact
Viral image taken out of context. Full video shows Kharge applauding when the award was announced.
President of India Droupadi Murmu on Saturday awarded the Bharat Ratna to former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, scientist MS Swaminathan, and two-time former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, posthumously, in a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
One image from the ceremony, which saw family members of the recipients accepting the awards, has been doing the rounds of social media, purportedly showing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge not applauding when PV Prabhakar Rao, son of PV Narasimha Rao, received the award on behalf of his father.
“…Not only is he [Kharge] not clapping, he is even keeping his hands tied so that it is visible and clear that he is not clapping,” read one such claim, implying that he is doing so on the orders of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who reportedly shared a strained relationship with the former PM. Other dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, can be seen applauding when the President presented the award to Prabhakar Rao.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact Check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Mallikarjun Kharge Narasimha Rao Bharat Ratna,” which did not throw up any credible news reports about such a moment during the ceremony.
We saw that several social media users had used the photo tweeted out by PM Narendra Modi, paying tribute to the former PM, while sharing their claim against Kharge.
Newschecker found that the President of India’s official Youtube account uploaded the video of PV Prabhakar Rao receiving the award, on behalf of his father, from President Droupadi Murmu, on March 31, 2024.
We can clearly see from the 00:06 mark that Kharge did applaud when the award was announced.
A video uploaded by DD News, dated March 30, 2024, shows PV Prabhakar Rao acknowledging the applause as he goes to receive the award, which proves that the viral claim is misleading and that the image was shared out of context.
Also Read: Was President Murmu Not Offered A Seat During Her Visit To LK Advani To Confer Him A Bharat Ratna?
Conclusion
Viral image claiming to show Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge not applauding when former PM PV Narasimha Rao was posthumously conferred the Bharat Ratna in a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan is taken out of context. A full length video of the ceremony shows Kharge applauding when the awards are announced.
Result: False
Sources
Youtube video, President of India, March 31, 2024
Youtube video, DD News, March 30, 2024
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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.
