| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Biden didn't ignore India; foreign leaders are not invited to US Presidential inauguration
A viral post on social media claims that Biden invited all of India's neighbours for his inaugural ceremony, however, India was not invited to the event.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Traditionally, foreign leaders are not invited to the US Presidential oath-taking ceremony. However, ambassadors and spouses are invited. India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu was invited to Biden’s inauguration.
Joseph R. Biden, popularly known as Joe Biden, was sworn-in as the 46th President of the United States in a low-key ceremony held at the US Capitol on January 20. Kamala Harris also took oath as the new US Vice President.
Now, a viral post on social media claims that Biden invited all of India’s neighbours for his inaugural ceremony, however, India was not invited to the event.
The caption in Hindi to one such claim translates as, “All the neighboring countries of India were invited for Biden’s oath-taking ceremony in the USA. But India did not get the invitation. Why did this happen?”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim is false. India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu was invited to Biden’s inauguration day and he participated in the ceremony as well. Traditionally, foreign leaders are not invited to US presidential oath-taking ceremony.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.
AFWA probe
With the help of keyword search, we found that on January 20, the official Twitter account of the Embassy of India in Washington shared the images of Sandhu at the US Capitol. The caption to the image read, “Ambassador @SandhuTaranjitS at the Capitol to attend 59th Presidential Inauguration - Oath of Office Ceremony of US President-elect Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. & Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.”
This tweet was later retweeted by Sandhu saying, “Pleasure to attend the historic ceremony!”.
Pleasure to attend the historic ceremony ! https://t.co/TweqATUBJV— Taranjit Singh Sandhu (@SandhuTaranjitS) January 20, 2021
Multiple media houses also reported about India's Ambassador to the US attending Biden’s inauguration ceremony.
Apart from Sandhu, several other foreign missions in the US capital were also invited by the Biden inauguration committee for the January 20 ceremony. China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Taiwan were a few amongst them.
It is to be noted that the incoming President is usually the main guest at the President's inauguration ceremony in the US, and the heads of nationals or foreign leaders are not traditionally invited on this occasion.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fear of violence, members of the Biden inauguration committee had urged Americans to watch the ceremony from their homes.
In November last year, multiple social media handles from India had claimed that former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the chief guest at Biden's swearing-in ceremony. India Today had debunked the claim at that time.
Hence, it is clear that the claim India was not invited for Biden’s oath-taking ceremony is false. India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu was indeed invited to the inauguration of Biden and he participated in the ceremony.
READ | Fact Check: This Trump letter needling Biden on election victory is fake
READ | Fact Check: Obama never warned Africans against Covid-19 vaccines from US, Europe
READ | Fact Check: This Batman wanted to save the city, but the video is not from Capitol Hill
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)