After visuals of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi at a pub in Nepal with a unknown woman surfaced with unverified claims that the woman is a Chinese diplomat, Gandhi family loyalists are working overtime to defend Gandhi. As part of this, Congress party supporter and Robert Vadra’s brother in law Tehseen Poonawalla on Wednesday took to Twitter to limit the damage that Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi created by spreading a lie about the identity of the woman.
Taking to Twitter, Tehseen Poonawalla shared two images of a Nepali woman appearing with both Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Modi. He claimed that the woman seen in two separate photographs with the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi is the same woman who was also seen with Rahul Gandhi in the pub. Despite differences between the woman in the photographs and the woman in the pub with Rahul Gandhi, Poonawalla blatantly lied that it is the same woman.
“The racist language BJP used for a Nepali woman was shocking & disgusting! A Nepali woman was called a Chinese Ambassador who honey traps men! Is Hon’ble PM, HM & EAM ok with this?” Tehseen Poonawalla, who is also the brother-in-law of Robert Vadra, claimed as he tried to claim that the woman who was seen with Rahul Gandhi at a party in Nepal was not Chinese as claimed by the social media users but a Nepali woman.
As per Tehseen Poonawalla’s defence, Rahul Gandhi had met the same Nepali woman that PM Modi had also met. Hence, one should not refer to her as Chinese, as she is a Nepali.
However, the lady seen in the image shared by Tehseen Poonawalla is none other than Nepali singer Saraswoti Khatri. The pictures which Tehseen Poonawalla shared claiming to be the same woman seen with Rahul Gandhi on Monday night in a pub were actually lifted from Saraswoti’s tweet.
In fact, Saraswoti Khatri had herself tweeted the particular image with Tehseen posted.
In her tweet, she said, “Music has the power to bring all people together. I had an honor to sing few songs for Honorable member of Indian Parliament member Mr. Rahul Gandhi ji yesterday evening. I found him such humble & simple person. Thanks to Sumnima ji, Nima Ji for this opportunity.”
Interestingly, Saraswoti tweeted this particular image on May 4, on Wednesday.
Music has the power to bring all people together. I had an honor to sing few songs for Honorable member of Indian Parliament member Mr. Rahul Gandhi ji yesterday evening. I found him such humble & simple person.
— Saraswoti khatri (@saraswotikhtri) May 4, 2022
Thanks to Sumnima ji, Nima Ji for this opportunity. pic.twitter.com/QbAZ9TEmLh
More importantly, Saraswoti had also met PM Modi in 2018 during his official visit to Nepal, where he had praised her for singing the famous bhajan of Mahatma Gandhi – ‘Vaishnav Jana to tene kahiye’.
According to the fact-checker and research handle The Hawk Eye – the Congress party bots are now circulating the picture shared by Tehseen Poonawalla as the lady seen with Rahul Gandhi in “Lord of the Drinks” pub in Nepal.
The Twitter handle suggested that there was an attempt by the Congress party to show that Rahul Gandhi and PM Modi had met the same person.
Before I could comment that how could she grow waist-length hair overnight, he deleted the tweet.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) May 4, 2022
Punawala is making hue-n-cry for ‘mis-recog’ face and doing same to defend it!!!!!
🤦♂️🤦♂️😂😂 What kind of pro-level Bhakti it is?
3/ pic.twitter.com/0zEOljlvIE
However, this is untrue.
The lady who was seen with Rahul Gandhi at the nightclub was seen with a short haircut. In the below video, it is clearly seen that the lady, purported to be a Chinese national, can be seen in a short hairstyle, unlike Saraswoti Khatri, who is seen with a long hair. On closer look, the facial differences between the two women also becomes apparent.
#RahulGandhi #RahulGandhiAtRaveParty #RahulGandhi Pappu ji partying With Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi at a bar in Nepal.
— Dr Ankit Sharma (@AnkitThalia) May 3, 2022
Hou yanqi is accused of honey trapping Nepalese Politicians including Nepal P.M. few days back. pic.twitter.com/VNjKkCk10R
In his hurry to peddle misinformation to defend Rahul Gandhi’s mysterious action in Nepal, Tehseen Poonawalla failed to realise that two days is too short for hairs to regenerate, as shown in the images put out by Saraswoti herself.
Hence, it is evident that Tehseen Poonawalla is simply lying when he says that the lady who was seen with Rahul Gandhi was none other than Sarasowti Khatri. While the identity of the woman at the pub is not known yet and probably it was not the Chinese ambassador to Nepal as claimed by some, it is certain that it was not singer Sarasowti Khatri. The singer did met Rahul Gandhi during his Nepal visit, but she was not seen with him in the pub in the viral videos.
