| schema:text
| - Fact Check: 2-year-old photo of Dhoni at a gurudwara being shared with farmers' stir twist
India Today Fact Check found that this 2022 photo of MS Dhoni from London has been shared with misleading claims.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This is a 2022 photo from Dhoni’s visit to London. It has nothing to do with the farmers’ protests.
As the farmers’ protests entered into its third week, a photo of former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni at a gurudwara (a place of worship for Sikhs) went viral. Those sharing it claimed that the photo was recent, and shot during the ongoing farmers' protests.
An X user shared the photo and wrote, “Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn’t go to Ram mandir Pran Prathisthan after being invited but he has visited Gurudwara today during ongoing Farmer’s protest. MSD is a man with a spine who is still upholding secular values." Its archive can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found this photo is from 2022, shot in London, England.
OUR PROBE
We performed a reverse search on the viral photo and found that the same photo was uploaded by an X user called Gurpreet Singh Anand on February 26, 2024. According to Anand’s bio, he is the president of Khalsa Jatha British Isles, a gurudwara established in London, England, in 1908.
In response to the viral post, many X users pointed out that the photo is not recent but from 2022. On Anand’s X account, we found a photo similar to the viral one, featuring him with Dhoni, shared on October 1, 2022. The post read: “I met MS Dhoni a couple of months ago at the Gurdwara @khalsajatha in London and noticed he was calm, at one with himself and able to absorb the spiritual moment. It's that inner calmness that gives fortitude in situations which may stress many others out.”
We compared this photo and the viral one and noted several similarities, including their attires and the red head-covering Dhoni wore.
We also found the viral picture on Anand’s Instagram account, shared on July 17, 2022. He captioned the photo: “Bowled over with the legendary @mahi7781.” As per the geotag in the Instagram post, the photo was from the Central Gurudwara Khalsa Jatha in London.
We searched for media reports that covered Dhoni’s visit to England in 2022 and found many reports of the cricketer roaming the streets of London at the time. As per reports, he also marked his presence in India's second ODI of the series against England at Lord's on July 14, 2022.
We then checked Dhoni’s social media accounts and media reports to find out if he had recently visited any gurudwara. We, however, found no credible media reports that could confirm the viral claim.
Thus, it's more than clear that a two-year-old picture of Dhoni's visit to a London gurudwara was falsely shared as a recent incident amid the ongoing farmers’ protests.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)