Rahul Gandhi’s pic with Amitabh Dubey & latter’s wife Amulya Gopalakrishnan viral with misleading claims

by Shreyatama Datta

Two images of Rahul Gandhi with a few men and a woman in a brown shirt have been shared by several Right Wing users on X (formerly Twitter). The photographs are taken from a distance seemingly outside an airport. People in the photograph can be seen carrying luggage including trolley bags. A man with a backpack can be seen with his back to the camera while a woman, holding onto her bags can be seen looking sideways. The only person in the photograph who is clearly visible is Rahul Gandhi.

X (formerly Twitter) Blue User BALA @erbmjha, who has been found sharing misinformation on a regular basis, shared the photographs with the claim Rahul Gandhi was seen with an unknown woman on a secret mission to Uzbekistan, in order to formulate a Toolkit against India. (Archive)

Another X Blue user, @MrSinha_, shared one of the photographs with a caption that states how the Congress MP is seen with different women, the woman in the picture being one. He later deleted the tweet. (Archive)

The readers should note that @MrSinha_ has been found sharing misinformation and hateful content on social media on a regular basis.

The photographs and the same claim were also shared by a user named @AmitLeliSlayer, who identifies himself in his bio as ‘Indian, Hindu, #𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐢’. (Archive)

Another user, @RitaG74 whose bio says that she is a former presenter at All India Radio, shared the photograph along with a screenshot from a 2020 OpIndia article titled “Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s daughter Amrit Singh works for George Soros’ Open Society Justice Initiative“. She claims that Rahul Gandhi is seen in the photo with Manmohan Singh’s daughter Amrit Singh. She later deleted the tweet. (Archive)

X users @figuttui and @sathyashrii also shared the photographs of Rahul Gandhi with the claim that he is seen with Amrit Singh. (Archive 1, 2)

Fact Check

We noticed that @SupriyaShrinate, the chairperson of Congress’s social media cell, had tweeted that in the photos, Rahul Gandhi was with his childhood friend Amitabh Dubey and his wife Amulya. (Archive)

According to his socia media handle, @dubeyamitabh is the in-charge of research & monitoring at @AICCMedia, the communications department of Congress. He is also the president of the Delhi branch of All India Professionals Congress.

Amulya Gopalakrishnan is the wife of Amitabh Dubey. She is a columnist at Times of India, The Indian Express, The Frontline, The Economic Times.

In order to confirm whether Amulya Gopalakrishnan and Amitabh Dubey were with Rahul Gandhi, we reached out to them. Amitabh Dubey responded to us saying he and his wife were indeed with Rahul Gandhi and they are the ones in the viral photograph.

The readers might know that the Dubeys are a longtime friend of the Gandhi family. Veteran journalist Suman Dubey, Amitabh’s father, was a lifelong ally of Rajiv Gandhi and also his media advisor. He is also one of the founding members and Trustee and executive committee member of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

Amitabh, on the other hand, has worked closely with Rahul Gandhi over the years. He was part of the 25-member team that had made Congress’s 2019 election manifesto. In 2011, Rahul Gandhi attended Amitabh Dubey’s wedding with Amulya Gopalakrishnan.

To sum up, a photo of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi with his friend Amitabh Dubey and the latter’s wife Amulya Gopalakrishnan is being shared with misleading claims.

Shreyatama Datta is an intern at Alt News.

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