Several social media users have shared pictures of Ahmed Khan, a former deputy executive director for the US President-Elect Joe Biden’s political action committee, ‘Draft Biden 2016,’ with the claim that Biden has appointed the ‘Indian-origin’ as his political advisor.
Khan confirmed to The Quint’s WebQoof team that the claims were false and he hadn’t been asked to be a political advisor to Biden at the time of publishing this article.
Regarding the images, they could be traced back to 2015 when Khan had been invited to Biden’s residence at the US Naval Observatory for a reception.
CLAIM
Social media users shared the images with the claim: “Bignews अमरीका के नए राष्ट्रपति Joe Biden ने भारतीय मूल के Ahmad Khan को अपना राजनितिक सलाहकार नियुक्त किया है। ग़ौरतलब है कि अहमद खान भारतीय है इनका का ताल्लुक़ हैदराबाद से है (sic)“
(Translation: “Big News: The New President of USA, Joe Biden has appointed Ahmad Khan of Indian origin as his political advisor. It is worth mentioning that Ahmed Khan is an Indian, he belongs to Hyderabad.”)
The same claim was also made in English and some users also added that Khan was the ‘grand son of Late Amman Ullah Khan’, a former MLA and founding-president of political party Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT).
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
A reverse image search led us to a tweet dated 15 December 2015 by Amjed Ullah Khan, the spokesperson for MBT according to his Twitter bio, stating that Ahmed Khan was invited to then US Vice President Biden’s reception.
We also found the pictures on Facebook, where Ahmed Khan had uploaded the photos in December 2015.
Khan had also shared the pictures recently on 10 November to wish Biden for his win in the 2020 US Elections. In his caption, he also mentions that he was the deputy executive director for the political action committee ‘Draft Biden 2016,’ which had aimed at building the foundation for Biden’s candidacy for US President, up until he decided not to run for it in 2016.
The New York Times and Chicago Sun Times had also reported on Khan’s role in the ‘Draft Biden 2016’ committee.
On being asked if he had been appointed as the President-Elect’s political advisor, Khan told The Quint that “there has been currently no such appointment.”
“I would pursue and be grateful for an opportunity to work in the Biden administration if there is a good fit and I was asked to,” added Khan, who is currently serving in Illinois State Senator Ram Villivalam’s ‘Multicultural Advisory Committee.’
Regarding his background, he stated, “I am a US citizen. Our family migrated to Chicago in the early 1980s and we have been here since.”
He also confirmed that he is indeed the grandson of Aman Ullah Khan, who had served as an MLA for the Chandrayangutta Assembly constituency in Hyderabad for five terms.
Further, we found that neither Biden-Harris transition team’s adivsory board nor its COVID-19 Advisory Board mention Ahmed Khan, nor have there been any news reports on the same.
However, the 500-member transition team, set up by the Biden administration, does include more than 20 Indian-Americans.
Evidently, social media users have falsely claimed that Khan was appointed as Biden’s political advisor.
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