A video in which former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh can be seen vacating a seat for Sonia Gandhi on the advice of a security personnel is being widely shared. The video is being shared claiming that during the Congress regime, the PM was humiliated by asking him to vacate the seat for Sonia Gandhi. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh being humiliated. He was asked to vacate his seat for Sonia Gandhi.
Fact: As per news reports, when Manmohan Singh mistakenly took the seat assigned to Sonia Gandhi, respective SPG guards informed both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh about the mix-up, who then swapped their seats. This was a UPA meeting and both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi were provided with SPG protection, they acted upon the SPG guards advice. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The viral visuals show an incident that took place during a UPA meeting in December 2011. A keyword search on YouTube yielded us news report which reported the same visuals. The title of the report reads ‘Kissa Kursi Ka: PM, Sonia Exchange Seats at UPA Meeting’.
As per the report, ‘Manmohan Singh had mistakenly sat in a seat assigned to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Realizing this, SPG guard assigned to Manmohan Singh discussed the issue with the guard assigned to Sonia Gandhi, and they first brought the issue to Mrs. Gandhi’s notice, who then stood up. Later the guards informed Manmohan Singh about the issue, who then vacated the seat and sat in his actual seat.’
Further search yielded another news report which carried the same visuals. As per this report, the visuals are from a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s residence to build consensus among UPA allies with respect to the upcoming High-level meeting on the Lokpal bill.
Even in this news report, it is clearly visible that both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi swapped their seats upon the advice of the SPG guards.
As both former PM Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were under SPG security, most likely they swapped their seats based on the inputs by SPG guards, as there are instances wherein SPG is very particular about seating arrangements of the dignitaries as per their SoP.
To sum it up, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi exchanged seats based on the SPG guard’s advice.
