From misinformation around Joe Biden losing the US President-elect status to social media users sharing unrelated images to falsely claim that Rashtriya Janata Dal workers disposed off ‘thousands of rasgulle’ after their loss in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections, here’s a quick recap of all that misled the public this week.
1. False Claims About Biden Losing ‘President-Elect’ Status Go Viral
Social media posts claiming that RealClearPolitics withdrew President-elect Joe Biden's win in Pennsylvania in the 2020 US presidential elections have gone viral. The claim goes on to say that by losing the state, Biden has effectively lost the President-elect status.
Former New York City Mayor and President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani tweeted that, “#FakeNews won’t cover law suit which will invalidate 3,00,000 or more crooked democrat votes votes in Philly. Real Clear Politics just took PA away from Biden and made it a toss up.[sic]”
2. Pics from Haryana & MP Viral as RJD Dumping Sweets Post Bihar Loss
A set of photos of sweets being dumped into the ground has gone viral with the claim that they show Rashtriya Janata Dal workers disposing off ‘thousands of rasgulle’ after their loss in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly Elections.
One of the viral images was shared by writer Harinder S Sikka on Twitter with the claim: “After loosing battle of ballots in Bihar, RJD workers decided to dump 1000s of ‘Rasgulle’ Wish they had served them to the poor instead. It’s so important to be educated (sic).”
Some social media users shared another image with a similar narrative.
However, we found that both the images are unrelated and are not from Bihar. While one is a recent one from Haryana’s Sirsa, other is an old one from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.
You can read the full story here.
3. Manmohan Singh Invited as Chief Guest to Biden’s Swearing-in? No!
As major news networks called the US Presidential race in favour of Democrat Joe Biden, several users on social media claimed that India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been invited as the ‘chief guest’ for Biden’s swearing-in ceremony.
A senior party official close to the former Prime Minister also confirmed to The Quint that the claims are false and Manmohan Singh has received no such invitation.
According to a New York Times report, Biden is expected to be sworn-in as the 46th President of the United States on 20 January in an outdoor ceremony.
The report mentions that apart from the President, Vice President, President-elect, Vice President-elect and their families, the chief and associate justices of the Supreme Court and other guests are present in the inaugural ceremony. It however, doesn’t mention any invitation to a ‘chief-guest’.
You can read the full story here.
4. Fake Viral Letter Says Modi Chose Giriraj Singh As Bihar CM
Amid the result of 2020 Bihar Assembly election, a letter endorsing Union Minister Giriraj Singh as the next chief minister of Bihar and purportedly signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was viral on social media.
A simple look at the letter shows some glaring grammatical and stylistic errors. Also, the signature of Prime Minister Modi in the viral letter does not match with his signature in authentic letters available in the public domain.
Further, we did not find any relevant news reports which corroborated the claim made in the letter, which is very unlikely at the time of elections.
You can read the full story here.
5. JNU & Jamia Give Free Accommodation to J&K Muslim Students? No!
A screenshot with a picture of the J&K Hostel at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi has gone viral with a false claim that a “hostel in JNU” is offering accommodation to Muslim students free of cost.
Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi does not have a hostel named ‘J&K Hostel’ and neither does it give free accommodation to students of a particular religion.
Regarding the J&K Hostel in the JMI University, we found that it does not offer free accommodation or any preference to students on the basis of religion or state of residence
Speaking to The Quint, the Public Relations Officer at JMI also rubbished the claims, calling them “completely false,” and “spread with the wrong intention.”
“Accommodation is provided purely on basis of merit. We also look at the candidate’s need in terms of distance and economic factors. J&K is just in the name but the hostel has students from all states and religions. Last year we had 70 non-Muslims in the J&K Hostel,” PRO said.
You can read the full story here.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)