Fact Check: Shashi Tharoor posts Nehru-Indira's USA visit pic, turns out to be one from USSR

In a major embarrassment to Shashi Tharoor, the senior Congress MP got brutally trolled on Twitter minutes after tweeting a photo of former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi from a public rally. Tharoor captioned the picture, "Nehru & India Gandhi in the US in 1954. Look at the hugely enthusiastic spontaneous turnout of the American public, without any special PR campaign, NRI crowd management or hyped-up media publicity."

Here's Shashi Tharoor's tweet:

The viral tweet has got more than 4,500 retweets and over 20,500 likes. The reason behind Tharoor's trolling was obvious. Firstly, the Congress MP called Indira Gandhi as 'India Gandhi' in his tweet. Secondly, the picture of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi that Tharoor posted was from Moscow 1955, not the United States, 1954.

Tharoor's mistake was pointed out by journalist R Jagannathan who replied to his tweet and said, "That is Moscow. Totally arranged adulation." Nehru and Indira Gandhi's picture were taken in USSR in June 1955.

Tharoor took to his Twitter to clarify the blunder that has been made by him. "I am told this picture (forwarded to me) probably is from a visit to the USSR and not the US. Even if so, it still doesn't alter the message: the fact is that former PMs also enjoyed popularity abroad. When @narendramodi is honoured, @PMOIndia is honoured; respect is for India," tweeted Tharoor.

As the gaffe was pointed out by netizens, 'India Gandhi' and 'Moscow' started trending on Twitter. Here's what the Twitterati has to say:

Someone even asked, 'Who's India Gandhi?'

 Another one asked Tharoor to 'do some basic fact check before spreading #Fake Congress'