Congress handles share photo of Indira Gandhi addressing jawans in Leh as Galwan valley - Alt News
Archit
23rd June 2020 / 4:40 pm / Last updated: 23rd June 2020
On June 21, several social media accounts of the Indian National Congress shared an image of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressing a crowd of army men. As per the claim, this speech was given to the Indian army soldiers in Galwan valley, the region where 20 Indian troops were recently martyred in clashes with China.
The image was tweeted by Uttar Pradesh Congress (archive link), gaining over 2,000 retweets. Some of the other official INC accounts that posted the image were Youth Congress (archive link), Delhi Youth Congress (archive link) and Daman and Diu Congress Sevadal (archive link).
UP MLA Aradhana Misra-Mona (archive link) also posted the image along with the same claim. Mona wrote, “Modi ji! Take inspiration from Indira Gandhi and bring back pride to Mother India. (मोदी जी! इंदिरा गांधी जी से प्रेरणा लीजिए, भारत माता गौरव वापस दिलाइये।).” Other INC members who posted the viral image include — vice president INC Delhi Ali Mehdi (archive link), IYC Chattisghar president Purnchandra Padhi (archive link), state president, western UP youth congress, Omveer Yadav (archive link) and national secretary and social media in-charge Vaibhav Walia (archive link).
Alt News performed a reverse image search on Google, along with relevant keywords, and found that the viral image was published by a blog art-sheep.com. The caption for the image read, “Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi addressing jawans in Leh in 1971.”
Using this as a clue, we performed a keyword search on PTI’s photo archive and found the viral image.
The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) tab under ‘Properties’ revealed that the photo was added on October 30, 2009. The description read, “One of the rare pictures of former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi addressing jawans in Leh in 1971, as the nation prepares to observe her 25th death anniversary.” This photo has been attributed to DPR Defence. As per Google Maps, Leh is at least 219 kilometres away from Galwan valley which is adjacent to the Galwan river flowing from the disputed Aksai Chin region to Ladakh.
India Today and Boom had earlier fact-checked the viral image.
Several social media accounts associated with Indian National Congress and members of the party used a photo of Indira Gandhi in Leh as the ex-PM addressing Indian army soldiers in Galwan valley in 1971.
One of the first accounts to post the viral image was Twitter user @indira_gandhi1. Their tweet was shared over 4,000 times (archive link).
Similarly, other social media users also shared the viral image on Twitter (English and Hindi) and Facebook.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about…
In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin…
The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to…
Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the…