New Delhi: An image of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi distributing sweets has gone viral on social media, falsely claiming that Singh was holding the sweets for the Gandhi family like a ‘servant’.
In a tweet Friday, author Shefali Vaidya shared the image with the caption: “Rare historical pic of family servant Ramukaka holding a box containing 100 crore rupees from the taxpayer’s money to be donated to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation as Shehzada and the Dowager Empress mingle with the commoners!”
The post was liked over a 1,000 times and shared more than 400 times until the time of publishing this report.
Rare historical pic of family servant Ramukaka holding a box containing 100 crore rupees from the taxpayer’s money to be donated to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation as Shehzada and the Dowager Empress mingle with the commoners! pic.twitter.com/57VlhHGxhi
— Shefali Vaidya. (@ShefVaidya) June 26, 2020
Vaidya, in her post, suggested that the former PM was Gandhi family’s ‘Ramu kaka’ — the typical name often given to the actor playing the role of a servant in Hindi films.
The “Dowager Empress” is a reference to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Also read: Woman, hanging from a tree in viral image, was not killed by a Muslim but by her ‘lover’
Fact check
The viral image is from 2015 and was taken during the inauguration of a programme by the Congress to celebrate the country’s 69th Independence Day.
A gallery of images from the day can be found on the Congress’ official Facebook page, where even Sonia and Rahul could be seen holding sweet boxes. It was not just Singh who was holding the sweet boxes, as was claimed by Vaidya in her tweet.
Sweet boxes were distributed among some children after the flag hoisting, and Singh, Sonia and Rahul — all were seen distributing sweet boxes to the children.
Picture used twice before
The same picture was shared by a group, ‘India Against Presstitutes’, on Facebook in 2017 with the caption: “When MMS [Manmohan Singh] was made to stand holding mithai ka dabba like the family’s loyal servant. Where was the ‘dignity’ of his post’?”
The post was shared over 3,000 times at the time.
Both Vaidya and India Against Presstitutes shared the image with the false claim that the former PM was holding a box of sweets for the Gandhi family.
Not a first for Vaidya
This is, however, not the first time that Vaidya has shared this picture on social media.
On 27 April 2016, Vaidya posted the same picture with a similar caption on Facebook.
The caption read: “Remember this pic? Shehzada and #ScamQueenSonia graciously mixing with commoners and getting all the credit, while poor loyal family servant Ramukaka is left holding Mithai Ka Dabba?”
“#AugustaWestland is exactly like that, as Miyan Patel proved last night on Times Now, when he distanced ‘his party and his leader’ from ‘the (UPA) govt,” she wrote.
On 17 September 2017, Vaidya tweeted the same picture again with the caption: “Rare pic of Manmohan Singh celebrating his birthday by holding the Mithai Ka Dabba while d Sultana n Shehzada graciously mingle w d masses (sic)”.
Rare pic of Manmohan Singh celebrating his birthday by holding the Mithai Ka Dabba while d Sultana n Shehzada graciously mingle w d masses pic.twitter.com/N7mSSSB34H
— Shefali Vaidya. (@ShefVaidya) September 26, 2017
(In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer)
Also read: Social media claims AI seated passengers without social distancing, but here’s the fact
Our accidental PM was exactly the ‘doormat’ of the first family. He was a ‘Ramukaka’. And he has no shame.
File a defamation on this Vaidya.
This is required now .
Congress should do this .
MMS was the prime minister while the sultana and shehzada were not. How can you compare the prestige of the PM to that of an unconstitutional authority?
Congress Corruption scandal – why are Sashi Tharoor, P. Chidambaram, Abhishek Singhvi silent?
There are many pictures like this which show the reality of Congress (mis) rule during which the half wit was Prince of India and a former foreign barmaid the Empress.
The Print cannot whitewash reality.
I am surprised at the hatred of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi not just by the author but by many of the posts. What wrong have they done to the nation. They have lost two of their family members to the nation. The People of India voted for Sonia Gandhi to be the Prime Minister in 2004 and 2009 yet she never took the opportunity. She wanted to retire after her husband’s death but chose to serve the nation as the Congress party wanted her too. She is a nice person and calling her names, using bigotry in the posts shows at what extent people try to excel in their hatred.
They have looted the country for a very very long time.
You cannot ignore how a genius like Manmohan Singh was treated by the family who thought they were as relevant, important and equivalent of Queen Victoria in UK entitled to rule and be an aristocrat in this country. That is fundamental principle entitlement thinking behind the dynasty approach. Already congress is thinking about Priyanka kids to be inducted in to politics to further carry the mantle deep into 21st century. While I was proud of Manmohan Singh, his accomplishments and his calibre I was often pained to see how he has to kneel in front of the family like Ramu Kaka. So the comparison is not false not matter how much you try to spin on it. It does not reflect bad on Manmohan, educated folks know how good he is and what respect he deserves. It is definitely cast a light on what the dynasty is up to and to what level they can stoop to. Please do not try to spin a positive picture out of this. It is hurful and shameful if you fail to call spade a spade. After all India has so many intelligent people among its billion and we are a thriving democracy so why so much defence and deferrence to one family? I know you will not publish as this goes against your ideology in defending the family against Modi. It is not about Modi and it is about nepotism debate that is raging everywhere. To whom you are born is becoming more and more important in India rather than what you bring to the table.
Whether he held the sweet dabba or not MMS was definitely the family retainer the quintessential’ Ramu kaka’ to Congress’s first family. Just as Blair was asked if he was Bush’s pet poodle.