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| - Fact Check: Truth behind pics showing Rahul Gandhi with Chinese envoys
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has stepped up attacks against the government over the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers in a bloody face-off with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley.
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India Today Fact Check
Rahul Gandhi had indeed tweeted that he did meet the Chinese ambassador over the Doklam crisis, but the pictures are completely unrelated.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has stepped up attacks against the government over the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers in a bloody face-off with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley.
Amid this, a set of pictures showing him, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, brother-in-law Robert Vadra and Congress leader Anand Sharma with Chinese envoys is going viral on social media, linking them to the Doklam crisis
The claim says at a time Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a stand-off in Doklam in 2017, the Gandhi siblings were conducting secret meetings with Chinese envoys.
Several Facebook pages such as Hindutva.info and Mera Desh Meri Jaan posted the photos with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "During the Doklam crisis, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were conducting secret meetings with Chinese ambassadors. This is just for your knowledge so you can understand the truth."
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the post misleading. During the Doklam crisis of June-August 2017, Rahul Gandhi had indeed tweeted that he met the Chinese ambassador, but the pictures posted along with the viral claim are not related to the meeting. One of the images is from 2018, several months after the stand-off, while the other is from April 2017, two months before tension erupted.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here and here.
Multiple users have shared this post on Facebook.
With the help of reverse image search, we found details about the two pictures.
Viral image 1
This image was tweeted by Rahul Gandhi on January 5, 2018. Gandhi wrote, "Met with the CPC Delegation led by Mr Meng Xiangfeng, member of the CPC Central Committee for a meaningful exchange of views."
Several news websites had reported about the meeting.
Viral image 2
This image has been available on the Chinese embassy website since April 21, 2017. It was taken a day before at the "Chinese Diaoyutai Food Festival" at Taj Palace Hotel.
Rahul's Doklam controversy
After initial denials from several Congress leaders, Rahul Gandhi himself tweeted on July 10, 2017, confirming that he had indeed met the Chinese ambassador.
Rahul tweeted, "It is my job to be informed on critical issues. I met the Chinese Ambassador, Ex-NSA, Congress leaders from NE & the Bhutanese Ambassador". This had created a political storm at the time and was covered by mainstream media.
But, none of the two viral pictures have any relation to the Doklam stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops.
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