Was Nehru slapped in 1962 for saying ‘Aryans were refugees in India’? Fact Check

A photo of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has surfaced on social media with a claim that Nehru was publicly slapped in 1962 at an event by the chief guest, Swami Vidyanand Videh, after he said that ‘Aryans were refugees in India’.

The post reads:

“The social media post reads: When Nehru got a slap on the face by Swami
Vidyanand Videh post 62 debacle. Reason: Nehru in his speech had said that Aryans were refugees in India. Hearing this, Swami, who was also the chief guest, went to the stage and slapped Nehru, pulled the mic from him, and said: “The Aryans were not refugees, they were my ancestors and they were original inhabitants of Bharat, but your (Nehru’s ancestors) were of Arabian descent and in your veins flow Arab blood, so you are not the original inhabitants of this great Country… if Sardar Patel was the P.M instead of you, we would not be in such a sorry state”
When we checked, similar posts have been shared on Twitter and other social media platforms.

When Nehru got a slap on the face by Swami Vidyanand Videh post 62 debacle .
Reason : Nehru in his speech had said that Aryas were refugees in India , hearing this Swami who was also the Chief guest got up went up to the stage and slapped Nehru , +

— gouranga (@gouranga1964) February 19, 2020

FACT CHECK

Putting the image through a Reverse Image Search, we found that the picture actually was carried by Outlook and Yandex has a record of this picture and its credit was attributed to Associated Press.

The caption reads: ‘A security man grabbed Indian Prime Minister Nehru to keep him from plunging into a riotous crowd at a meeting of the Congress Party in Patna, India, January 1962. Later in the year, Communist China’s attack on India plunged Nehru into a new troubles. (AP Photo)”. Evidently, the incident took place in Patna in January 1962.

Further, our search yielded no results on any incident that Nehru was slapped in the public at any event. While records show that Swami Vidyanand ‘Videh’ was the one who founded the Ved Sansthan, there is no news or any report that he slapped Nehru. Hence, the claim is False.

Claim: Nehru was slapped on stage in 1962 for saying, “Aryans were refugees in India”.

Conclusion: False, the image belongs to another event and there’s no record of any such incident that Nehru was slapped.

Rating: Totally False —