A photograph showing women dancing inside what appears to be a hotel or bar is being widely circulated on social media. Users sharing the image claim that one of the women pictured is Congress leader Sonia Gandhi during her youth.The photograph has been shared to suggest that Sonia Gandhi worked or performed as a dancer before entering public life.
Fact check :
DFRAC conducted a reverse image search of the viral photograph. The search led to a clearer version of the image archived by Getty Images. According to the caption accompanying the original photograph, the image was taken on 21 November 1967 and shows “Go-Go Dancing Girls” helping to break a beer shortage at a hotel in Auburn, Sydney.
The Getty Images watermark is also visible on the viral version of the photograph, further indicating that the image is an archival photograph rather than a recent photograph of Sonia Gandhi.Additional photographs from the same event show several dancers performing at a hotel during a period when Sydney was experiencing a shortage of draught beer.
To independently verify the circumstances described in the Getty Images caption, DFRAC searched historical records relating to the reported beer shortage in Sydney in 1967. Archived reports available through Trove, the National Library of Australia’s digital archive, mention a major disruption in the supply of draught beer in Sydney following a strike by brewery workers.
One archived report from The Canberra Times stated that nearly three-quarters of Sydney hotels had run out of draught beer due to a strike involving around 1,400 brewery workers.
This historical record is consistent with the context provided in the Getty Images caption and further establishes that the photograph is connected to a 1967 beer shortage in Sydney.
DFRAC compared the clearer archival photograph with publicly available photographs of Sonia Gandhi from around 1968, the year she married Rajiv Gandhi.
The facial features, bone structure and overall appearance of the woman in the viral photograph do not correspond with Sonia Gandhi’s photographs from that period.
An additional AI-assisted facial comparison was also conducted between the woman visible in the viral photograph and known photographs of Sonia Gandhi from the same period. The comparison did not establish a match.
Therefore, there is no credible evidence to support the claim that Sonia Gandhi appears in the photograph.
Conclusion:
DFRAC investigation clearly establish that the viral photograph does not show Sonia Gandhi in her youth. The image is an archival photograph taken on 21 November 1967 at a hotel in Auburn, Sydney, Australia, showing go-go dancers performing during a period of beer shortage linked to a strike by brewery workers.
| Claimed Review | A viral photograph showing dancers in a bar is being circulated on social media with the claim that one of the women is Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in her youth. |
| Claimed By | Facebook user |
| Fact check | Fake |
Sources:
1.Getty Images Website
2.Times ContentWebsite
3.Face Recognition & Compare App
