Fact-Check: Misleading claim about only Sonia Gandhi meeting WC-winning team in 2007 viral
New Delhi: A photo of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi posing with the 2007 Indian cricket World Cup winning team has gone viral on social media, sparking controversy. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared the image, claiming that Gandhi met the team despite not being the Prime Minister, suggesting she did so due to 'her privilege'. The insinuation was that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not get the opportunity to meet the team.
The Truth: This claim is misleading. Archival photos and reports confirm that the winning team also met with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 30, 2007.
Investigation:
1. Reverse Image Search: Conducting a reverse image search on the viral photo led to the same image on Getty Images. The description revealed that Sonia Gandhi, then Chairperson of India's UPA Government and Congress Party president, posed with the Indian cricket team at her residence in New Delhi on October 30, 2007.
2. Further Evidence: A similar Getty Images photo showed that the 2007 T20 Cricket World Cup winners also met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil.
3. Keyword Search: Using the keywords 'Manmohan Singh meets cricket team 2007 world cup' on Google led to a Times of India report published on October 31, 2007. This report included images of the team with Singh and noted that he was accompanied by Ambika Soni, Prithviraj Chavan, and Rajeev Shukla, among others.
4. Additional Images: Further images from October 30, 2007, were found in the PMO archives, showing Singh with the 2007 T20 Cricket World Cup winners.
Conclusion: The claim that only Sonia Gandhi met with the Indian cricket World Cup team in 2007 is misleading. The team also met with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, confirming that both leaders had interactions with the players.
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Minor student stabs teacher to death in coaching centre classroom in Assam
Guwahati (PTI): A teacher of a coaching centre was knifed to death allegedly by one of his students inside a classroom in Assam’s Sivsagar district on Saturday, a police officer said.
The student, who is a minor, has been taken to the local police station in Sivsagar town, he added.
It is claimed that the teacher had scolded the class 11 student earlier in the day over some issue.
“We reached the coaching centre on receiving information of a stabbing incident. According to preliminary information, a student stabbed his teacher. There is a lot of blood in the classroom. The knife was also found there,” the officer said.
He said the teacher was taken to the hospital in a critical condition, where he was declared dead.
The officer said the incident happened in the last period of the day, when other teachers had already left.
“We have picked up the student. We don’t know yet what led to the incident. We are in the process of collecting the CCTV footage,” the officer added.
A classmate of the accused claimed that the teacher had scolded him over some matter earlier in the day.
The accused had left school and returned later, and when he entered the classroom, the teacher accosted him again. The student then attacked the teacher with a knife, the classmate claimed.
