Did you read that Sonia Gandhi is richer than Queen Elizabeth II? Did you believe that news because it was written by an esteemed daily? Once again, did you fall for the headline? Well, a fact check has revealed that Sonia Gandhi is definitely not richer than the Queen of England.
A simple check has revealed that the information is false.
The article is 5 years old
The article titled “Sonia Gandhi is richer than British Queen Elizabeth II: Huffington Post” was written by The Times of India. This has been shared by many in a lot of pro-BJP groups.
Firstly, the moment you open the article you will see that the report is a December 2013 report. What The Times of India had done in 2013 is that they published an article written by HuffPost, an American news and opinion website. HuffPost wrote an article about World’s richest 20 leaders and rulers. Sonia Gandhi was ranked 6th. The Times of India while writing the article mentioned at last “However, the HuffPost report does not clearly state how it has arrived at the conclusion.”
Shared in Pro-BJP pages People have shared the same article on Twitter too
Later, Sonia Gandhi’s name was removed from the list and HuffPost apologised for their mistake. The clarified that they took the information from an unreliable source, namely a website called “Celebritynetworth.com”. The website claimed that Sonia Gandhi had a net worth of $2 billion. This could not be verified.
In their apology, HuffPost wrote “Editor’s Note: Sonia Gandhi and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani have been removed from this list. Gandhi was originally included based on a listing on a third party site which was subsequently called into question. Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion. Qatar’s emir was succeeded by his son Tamim in 2013.”
During declaration before 2014, in the affidavit, Sonia Gandhi declared her wealth to be Rs 10 crore and movable assets worth Rs 2.82 crore. The Queen of England has around $450 million or Rs 3,100 crore (approx).
Although this fake news was busted over five years ago, it still seems to pop up from time to time. Recently, Ashwini Upadhyay, BJP spokesperson, tweeted about the same.
Congress’s Elizabeth is richer than British Queen Elizabeth-II & Sultan of Congress is richer than Sultan of Oman.
India urgently needs a Law to seize 100 % disproportionate assets & Benami Properties with lifetime imprisonment
https://t.co/KWRhrBJoer@PMOIndia @narendramodi
— Ashwini Upadhyay (@AshwiniBJP) January 7, 2019
The Logical Indian take
As citizens of the country, we have a certain responsibility. While trolls and parody accounts have taken the responsibility upon themselves to share as much false information as possible, it is our responsibility to differentiate between what is true and what isn’t, while making others aware about the issue too.
Creating or sharing fake news is never justified. We have a responsibility to verify everything that we post on the internet. To ensure that our national debate is healthy and well-informed, each and every one of us has a responsibility of treating what we read with a pinch of salt, a spoonful of doubt, and a flood of research.
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