Social media is abuzz with claims that during Rahul Gandhi’s recent US tour, an American university played the Pakistani National anthem when Rahul Gandhi arrived to deliver a speech. This was allegedly done as they mistook him for a Pakistani, owing to his recent ‘negative’ speeches about India. Social media posts sharing this information also shared a link to a news article as evidence for this claim. Let’s verify this claim through this article.
Claim: An American University played the National Anthem of Pakistan when Rahul Gandhi visited it to deliver a speech.
Fact: The news article that is being shared along with this claim was published on a ‘satirical web portal’ named ‘the fauxy.’ They publish fictional articles. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we first performed a keyword search online. This search did not yield any credible news reports backing the viral claim. Then, we went through the news article that was linked as evidence for the claim in the viral post.
It was posted on a website named ‘the fauxy’ on 11 September 2024 with a headline that reads ‘After hearing Rahul Gandhi’s speeches on India, Americans mistake him for a Pakistani, Plays Pakistani National Anthem when he arrives.’ It details this alleged incident with a quote from the organizer of the event, which reads, ‘ “We receive a lot of Pakistani people too; even they don’t talk this much against India. Only ISI-trained Pakistani diplomats sent to defame India talk like this.”.’ However, it must be noted that the entire article is a made-up story; it’s completely fictional.
The website that posted this article, ‘the fauxy’ is a ‘satirical web portal.’ A disclaimer on their website reads, ‘The material published on this website is based on fiction. Readers are advised not to consider articles in the fauxy to be factual or true.’ They post such parody/satirical content on their social media accounts (here and here), too. This makes it clear that a satirical article was mistaken for real news and made viral.
To sum up, the viral news that a US University played the Pakistani National anthem at the arrival of Rahul Gandhi is fake; it originated from a portal that publishes satirical/fictional articles.
