Video from Canada falsely shared as visuals of Pongal dinner hosted by UK PM Rishi Sunak in London - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 19, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as recent visuals showing the officials of the United Kingdom government eating traditional meals as part of the Pongal celebrations in London. Sharing the video, this post claims that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had hosted this Pongal dinner for the officials in London. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing the Pongal dinner hosted by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London.
Fact: The video shows the officials in Canada having a traditional Indian meal as part of the Pongal celebrations at Waterloo city in Ontario, Canada. Tamil Culture Waterloo Region, a community organization in Waterloo, hosted this traditional meal for Waterloo politicians, Mayors, Councillors, and Police staff, as part of the Pongal celebrations. The video has nothing to do with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found tweeted by a user clarifying that the video is from Waterloo in Canada. Providing a link to the video published by ‘Tamil Culture Waterloo Region’ Facebook page, this Twitter user stated it was a video from the Pongal event hosted by the Tamil Association of Waterloo organisation for the City Mayor & Police staff. The ‘Tamil Culture Waterloo Region’ published this video on 15 January 2023, with the description, “TCA Tamil Thai Pongal Celebration (Tamil Thanksgiving) region of Waterloo politicians, Regional Chair City Mayors, Councillors and Police Chief and staff.”
When we searched further for other sources using this information, we found the tweets of Berry Vrbanovic, the Mayor of Kitchener city, sharing the photos from the Pongal celebrations event organized by the Tamil Culture Waterloo community. On 17 January 2023, Tim Louis, the Member of Parliament of Kitchener city, tweeted a video showing him and other officials having traditional Indian meals as part of the Pongal celebrations in Waterloo. Reporting the details of this video of Canadian officials celebrating Pongal in Waterloo, several news websites have recently published articles and videos.
Celebrated Tamil Thai Pongal with traditional food, music, and dance. What an amazing night – thank you Tamil Culture Waterloo Region for having me! Iniya Thai Pongal Vazthukal!@waterlootamils pic.twitter.com/vHC5sbe4b1
On 14 January 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted a video wishing the UK Tamil community, and the Tamils around the world a happy Thai Pongal. But lately, there are no news reports about Rishi Sunak hosting a Pongal dinner to the UK Government officials in London. A few pictures of Pongal celebrations in the United Kingdom can be seen here.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wishes the UK Tamil community, and Tamils all around the world a happy Thai Pongal 🌾
Here’s to an auspicious year ahead. pic.twitter.com/bIyTFAeAvG
To sum it up, a video of Canadian officials celebrating Pongal with traditional meals is shared as visuals of the Pongal dinner hosted by Rishi Sunak in London.