Claim
Pongal lunch hosted by PM Rishi Sunak in London.
Grt idea …! Will try to do for my north Indian frnds
Rating
Explanation
A video of foreigners relishing Indian meals served on banana leaves using their hands is viral on social media including Twitter and Facebook. This video is shared with the claim that UK PM Rishi Sunak hosted lunch as a part of the Pongal celebration for his staff at 10, Downing Street, London. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here, here, here, here, and here. This video is viral on Facebook with the same claim.
The video was reported with the same claim that Rishi Sunak hosted a Pongal lunch by multiple mainstream media including NDTV, Indian Express, and other media. Money Control and Times Now seem to have misleading titles.
What is the truth?
One of the comments by Raj Kannan to the claim tweet says that the video was from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada from the Pongal event organized by Tamil Culture Waterloo. The tweet also has an image of a projected slide listing guest of honor speeches.
The Facebook page of ‘Tamil Culture Waterloo Region’ posted the viral video mentioning the people in the video as Waterloo politicians, mayors, councilors, and police during the Pongal celebration.
Further, the tweets by the officials including Berry Vrbanovic, Tim Louis, and Mark Crowell (mentioned in the slide that lists the guests) are found when searching with the keywords ‘Waterloo pongal’ on Twitter.
The people in the images posted by Mark Crowell can be seen in the viral video shared as Pongal feast hosted by UK PM Rishi Sunak.
Conclusion
The video of officials relishing the Indian feast from the Pongal event hosted by ‘Tamil Culture Waterloo’ in Canada is falsely shared as UK PM Rishi Sunak hosted the Pongal feast to his staff at 10, Downing Street in the UK.
