Lalu Prasad’s Son Tej Received Doctorate !
Aug 31: As per the FB post pic shows, RJD leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad’s son Tej Pratap Yadav is being hugely shared on social media with claim that he received a doctorate from Takshasila University.
The post also claims that Tej Yadav has not studied beyond class 10 and sarcastically hails India as a country for awarding him a doctorate. The photo, includes a woman and Yadav holding degrees as another dignified man looks on, has been intermittently viral on social media since 2017, despite being fact-checked by several outlets.
The fact check was done by keywords and persons seen on the viral photo, like the words ‘convocation’ and ‘Patna’ on the banner behind Yadav and the two others present on stage. These led to a news article by The Times of India from February 12, 2017. The article reported that Yadav, then health minister of Bihar, had attended the convocation ceremony held at Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS). Reportedly he had handed out degrees and gold medals to 78 MBBS, 20 postgraduates, three super specialty course students, and 20 paramedics.
Through reverse image search, we also found Yadav’s tweet from February 11, 2017, where he had written that he participated in the third convocation of IGIMS the same day and presented degree certificates and gold medals to the students. The tweet also contained photos from the event, one of which showed Yadav presenting certificates to the student seen in the viral photo, taken from a different angle.
Further, fact finding of video footage also came upon as a video uploaded by ‘RJD Bihar’ on YouTube on March 23, 2017, which showed Yadav at the institute, interacting with staff before the ceremony.