Did Rishi Sunak Say India Needs a PM Like Manmohan Singh? The Graphic is Edited

The original graphic talked about a spat between the Congress and the BJP over Rishi Sunak's appointment.

Fact-Check | A graphic carrying a collage of UK PM Rishi Sunak and former Indian PM Manmohan Singh has gone viral with an edited caption.

(Photo: The Quint)

A graphic, purportedly shared by Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, has gone viral to claim that the newly-appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, made a statement praising the former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

According to the viral post, Sunak said India needs a PM like Singh to steer the country in the right direction and improve the economy.

However, we found that the claim was false. An actual graphic created by Dainik Bhaskar was altered to make the viral image. The original graphic talked about a spat between the BJP and Congress over Sunak's appointment.

Several Opposition leaders, including members of the Congress, said that it was time for India to get a PM from the minority community. Responding to the Opposition party leaders, the BJP said that India had already had a leader from the minority community – Manmohan Singh.

CLAIM

The text in the viral graphic, attributed to Sunak, said, "भारत को सही दिशा और दशा देने कमजोर गिरती अर्थव्यवस्था को सुधारने के लिए मनमोहन सिंह जैसे प्रधानमंत्री की आवश्यकता है".

[Translation: India needs a prime minister like Manmohan Singh to give right direction and improve the condition of the country's weak and falling economy.]

An archive of the post can be found here.

The viral graphic was shared by several people on social media, archives of which can be found here and here.

We also received the image as a query on our WhatsApp tipline.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a keyword search on Google for a statement from Sunak on Singh but were unable to find such any. We also didn't find any news report talking about such a statement.

We then conducted a reverse image search on the collage of Sunak and Singh, and found it in a tweet shared by Dainik Bhaskar on 25 October. However, the text on the image was different.

Original tweet carrying the collage of Rishi Sunak and Manmohan Singh Dainik Bhaskar.

The text in the original photo said, "Chidambaram and Tharoor's advice, India should also have a PM from the minority community: BJP replies, have you forgotten Manmohan Singh".

The accompanying caption says, "Sunak has been elected the new Prime minister of Britain. He is the first Asian and of Indian descent to reach this position. P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor have started a new debate on Sunak becoming the PM. The BJP also attacked the Congress fiercely."

The tweet had a news article in the caption. The story talked about a spat between the BJP and the Opposition parties in detail.

Clearly, a fake graphic is being shared to claim that Sunak made the statement, while there is no evidence to support it.

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