A screenshot of a tweet, allegedly posted by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, seeking an answer from PM Modi as to why Olympic Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra stood second in the image despite securing the first position in the Javelin throw competition, has gone viral on various social media platforms.
The screenshot of Gandhi’s alleged tweet shared a picture of Neeraj Chopra standing on the podium after he won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The caption to the image, which is in Hindi, roughly translates to: “Is it right to stand in the second position despite coming first? Answer, Modi Ji”.
The post has gone viral on the internet. Scores of people have shared the picture of the alleged tweet posted by Rahul Gandhi on their respective social media accounts, particularly on Twitter.
Not just Twitter, but the image is doing the rounds on Whatsapp and Facebook as well. The image attached with the alleged tweet by Rahul Gandhi showed the three medallists after the javelin throw event facing the flags of the three nations while the Indian national anthem was being played in the stadium. Gold medallist Chopra was standing in the middle as per custom.
Fact Check
While Rahul Gandhi is known for committing gaffes, the screenshot of the image that is going viral is fake and the Gandhi scion has not tweeted anything of the sort. The date stamp on the viral image is a dead giveaway that the post was fake and the image was morphed. It shows the photo was tweeted at 4.51 pm on August 5, 2021. Neeraj Chopra had won the Olympic gold medal two days later, on August 7, 2021.
When we scoured Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account, we found a tweet posted at the same date and time as the screenshot, in which Gandhi congratulated Olympic wrestler Ravi Dahiya on winning the silver medal. Here’s the screenshot of the tweet posted by Rahul Gandhi:-
It appears that the screenshot of the above tweet was photoshopped with the medal ceremony where Neeraj Chopra was awarded a gold medal for securing the first position with his record 87.58-meter jevelin throw.
While Neeraj Chopra won a gold medal on August 7, Rahul Gandhi had posted his last tweet on August 6. Shortly after that, Gandhi’s account was locked temporarily by Twitter over violation of the POCSO (Protection of Children against Sexual Offences) Act.
In a tweet last week, Rahul Gandhi had shared pictures of the parents of the minor girl in Delhi who was allegedly raped and murdered. Thereby, he had ended up revealing the identity of the child and her parents, violating the law of the land. In response, the NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) had written to Twitter to remove the contentious tweet.
Since then, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party has reportedly taken the snub personally and have demanded the microblogging website to either come out and say that they ‘locked out’ Rahul Gandhi’s account under pressure from the Government of India or to at least issue a regret note for doing so, sources in Congress IT cell told OpIndia. However, Twitter has maintained that Rahul Gandhi violated both Indian laws and its policies by posting the tweet, and that is why his account has been locked, apart from removing the concerned tweet.
Neeraj Chopra creates history by bagging gold at Tokyo Olympics
On August 7, 2021, Neeraj Chopra created history by winning the first athletic medal for India in a century. Neeraj Chopra won the Gold Medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the Javelin Throw event on Saturday last week. In doing so, he ended India’s century-long wait for an Olympic medal in athletics.
The last Indian medal in athletics came in 1920. Neeraj Chopra had topped the qualifying round with an 86.59-meter throw, which he registered in his first attempt. On Saturday’s finals, Chopra scored a whopping 87.03 meters in the first throw and 87.58 meters in the second. His other throws could not match his feat in the first two rounds but they did not need to. His second throw was enough to win him the Olympic Gold.
