DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A post on social media targeting the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has gone viral with a claim that a White House official with diplomatic credentials has denounced his remarks abroad stating as why Indians vote for Rahul Gandhi, who the claim alleged that he always speaks negative about his own country. See the post here:
Mary Bilman, an employee in White House, USA is surprised to see why Indians vote for Rahul Gandhi who always speaks negatively about his own country. pic.twitter.com/LS9JkIfSWS
— BJP4Panchkula (@BJPPanchkula) September 13, 2024
The claim reads: “Mary Bilman, a senior White House employee, says the US is surprised to see why Indians vote for Rahul Gandhi who always speaks negatively about his country.”
FACT CHECK
Since the claim made was purportedly by a White House official, which is highly undiplomatic, Digiteye India took it up and fact-checked the same. Our simple search for the name of such a White House official revealed that there was no person by the name of Mary Billman nor any such “Senior White House Diplomatic level Officer” exists.
However, taking the person’s picture in the video, we conducted a Google Reverse Image Search and the results showed that the woman in the video is an American singer by the name of Mary Millben, who has no locus standi to represent the US White House at present, nor does she have any diplomatic credential to criticize the Indian opposition leader.
Further search of key frames from the video showed up results pointing to news reports published on July 2, 2023, where Hollywood actor and singer Mary Millben had criticised Rahul Gandhi, whose Indian National Congress Party had just won the crucial Assembly elections in the south Indian state of Karnataka, with its capital Bangalore.
Following her utterances, another news report appeared in Times Now, dated July 4, 2023, headlined, “Difficult To Support’: American Singer Who Touched PM Modi’s Feet Blasts Rahul Gandhi For ‘Anti-India Stance’.
The issue surfaced again as Millben retweeted the old viral video on September 11, 2024, coinciding with Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the United States as Leader of the Opposition after the opposition INDIA bloc won 234 seats compared to 240 seats won by BJP, necessitating the support from NDA partners to form the government.
Claim: Mary Bilman, a senior White House employee, says the US is surprised to see why Indians vote for Rahul Gandhi who always speaks negatively about his country.
Conclusion: Misrepresentation — There is no White House official by name Mary Bilman. Old video of singer Millben was used to support the claim.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
