THE CLAIM
Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s Dubai trip – coming just ahead of the General Elections in May – was the subject of many fake/misreported news stories and social media posts.
Among the many claims made, one was that Gandhi had a lavish £1,500 breakfast at a five-star hotel, where he also allegedly enjoyed beef.
The claim that Gandhi met a delegation led by Sam Pitroda, chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, and “discussed poverty” while having breakfast “worth £1,500 at the banquet hall in Hilton”, was made by several users on Twitter and Facebook and went viral.
One such post, shared by the Facebook page PMO India : Report Card, had almost 3,500 shares at the time of writing this article.
Twitter user Rishi Bagree had also made similar claims, and his tweet was retweeted more than 2,600 times.
Several users also claimed that Gandhi had beef at the breakfast:
THE TRUTH
A Google search about the details of the event led to a tweet put out by Congress’ official Twitter handle, that revealed the breakfast was not hosted at a five-star hotel but rather at Dubai-based education entrepreneur Sunny Varkey’s house.
The breakfast meet was also attended by other Dubai-based business leaders like Yusuff Ali MA, Pitroda and Congress MP Milind Deora.
The Quint reached out to AICC secretary Himanshu Vyas, who was also present at the breakfast, to clarify the details of the event.
Vyas confirmed that the breakfast was, in fact, held at Varkey’s residence.
“There was no beef served at the breakfast... only continental food was served. I can confirm that Gandhi did not consume any beef there. The news is fake,” he said.
Another fact worth noting is that the posts and tweets quote the amount for the breakfast in British Pounds, which is not the official currency of Dubai – it is United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED).
Boom reported that Bagree, who had tweeted the fake news, has done so in the past as well. Interestingly, he is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani.
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