On Friday (12th July) evening, social media was rife with the fake claim that the Vice-President of the United States Kamala Harris had a telephone conversation with Rahul Gandhi.
The development comes amid attempts to pass off the Congress leader as an internationally sought-out politician. Several ‘journalists’, activists and loyalists of the Congress were party to the fake news.
“Big Breaking! US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to LOP Rahul Gandhi on phone yesterday. After becoming LOP, Rahul Gandhi’s stature has increased a lot, now the world sees him as the next Prime Minister of India,” wrote one Harsh Tiwari
The political editor of the Hindustan Times, Vinod Sharma, also disseminated the fake story.
Pidis: Rahul Gandhi talked to US Vice President
— Amit Kumar Sindhi (@AMIT_GUJJU) July 13, 2024
US VP office: No such conversation took place
Looks like Balakbuddhi got scammed first by fraud callers & then these journalists doing paid tweet for a convo that never happened pic.twitter.com/VkgnBBcXXn
The Truth behind the viral claims
The matter reached a crescendo when Press Trust of India posted about it. The syndicated feed of the news agency was used by the leftist propaganda newspaper The Telegraph to make the same dubious claims.
“Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and US Vice President Kamala Harris had a telephonic conversation on Thursday, sources said. Though the specifics of the conversation were not known, this comes in the run-up to the US presidential polls later this year,” the PTI feed on The Telegraph read.
On Saturday (13th July) morning, the Chief US correspondent of PTI Lalit K Jha clarified that no such telephonic conversation had occurred.
This news is inaccurate as per office of the US Vice President. @KamalaHarris has not spoken with @RahulGandhi. https://t.co/Q4pRfPcfYy
— Lalit K Jha ललित के झा (@lalitkjha) July 13, 2024
“This news is inaccurate as per office of the US Vice President. @KamalaHarris has not spoken with Rahul Gandhi,” he said in a tweet.
