Viral Manmohan-Sonia video with Chinese delegation not from Singh’s PM days; Right-wing’s claims misleading

Several Right-leaning social media handles are sharing a video of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh drawing attention to the fact that it is Sonia and not Singh who greets a foreign dignitary first after he comes out of his car. This, the users claim, goes to show that Singh was a weak Prime Minister and played a second fiddle to Sonia.

BJP West Bengal spokesperson Madhavi Agarwal shared the video on X noting that it showed the condition of the Prime Minister of the country during the Congress rule. (Archive link)

राहुल गाँधी मोदी जी के लिए सड़क छाप भाषा बोलते है, बल्कि सारे काँग्रेस के प्रवक्ता नेता बोलते हैं — क्युकी काँग्रेस के शासन में देश के प्रधान मंत्री की स्थति ऐसी होती थी!! pic.twitter.com/m51PPt4Cym

— Madhavi Agarwal (@madhavi_agarwal) September 1, 2025

X user Kashmiri Hindu (@BattaKashmiri) shared the video and wrote that Manmohan Singh was a weak Prime Minister. ( Archive link )

Right-wing influencer @JIX5A shared the video and wrote that Manmohan Singh was “Italian Sonia Gandhi’s” puppet Prime Minister. ( Archive link )

BJP supporter Jitendra Pratap Singh, who amplifies misinformation and propaganda on a regular basis, shared the same video with a similar claim — that the dignity of a Prime Minister was being destroyed.

Fact Check

When we reverse-image searched the frames of the viral video on Google, we found the same video uploaded on the Congress party’s YouTube channel on June 16, 2015, with the caption “Congress President’s meeting with Chinese delegation.”

This is the same incident that the viral video depicts.

Readers should note that Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister of India for two consecutive terms, from 2004 to 2014.

We also found an X post from the official handle of Congress on June 16, 2015, in which Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh are pictured with a foreign delegation. The caption says that a Chinese parliamentary delegation met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A Chinese Parliamentary Delegation called on Congress President Smt.Sonia Gandhi and Former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh pic.twitter.com/UeFeu2YatJ

— Congress (@INCIndia) June 16, 2015

So, it is clear that the video is from a time when Manmohan Singh was not the Prime Minister of India. This meeting was between the foreign delegation and the then Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who held that position from 1998 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2022. Manmohan Singh was present there not as a Prime Minister, but as a leader of the Congress party. And it was perfectly in the fitness of things that the delegation was greeted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi first.

The incident does not in any way indicate that Manmohan Singh was a weak Prime Minister.

This is not the first time BJP supporters have amplified such claims. At least four similar photos have been shared with false claims in the past. Read our fact check here.