2 published verifications about West Bengal West Bengal ×
“Firhad Hakim, a minister in the West Bengal government and Mayor of Kolkata, arranged for a 9-year-old child (his daughter or granddaughter) to cast a vote in an election.”
Available reporting supports only that Firhad Hakim brought family members to the polling booth and a 9-year-old granddaughter was photographed with an ink mark. Credible accounts describe this as ink applied “for fun,” and none of the cited sources provides official confirmation, booth testimony, or records showing the child was issued a ballot or voted. The allegation that Hakim arranged for a minor to cast a vote is not substantiated.
“Mahatma Gandhi renounced a Knighthood in response to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.”
This claim confuses two historical figures and two distinct British honors. It was Rabindranath Tagore — not Mahatma Gandhi — who renounced a knighthood in protest of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Gandhi held the Kaiser-i-Hind medal, an entirely different civilian honor, which he returned in 1920 as part of the broader Non-Cooperation Movement. The claim is wrong on both the person and the nature of the honor.