No, this is not a photo of Indian politician Rahul Gandhi meeting a pornstar in the USA

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on January 31, 2019 at 07:30
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP India
Multiple Facebook posts have shared a photo showing Indian politician Rahul Gandhi with a woman they claim is a pornstar at America’s most expensive hotel. The claim is false, the woman in the photo, Nathalia Ramos, is a Spanish-American actress who met Gandhi at a think-tank event in Los Angeles and posted the photo with him on her Facebook page in 2017.

The posts, for example this one which has been shared 1,600 times since it was published December 5, 2018, contain a photograph of Rahul Gandhi with Nathalia Ramos.

The post’s Hindi language caption says: "Upper-caste practising Hindu" followed by three laughing face emoji.

The Hindi text on the photo says: “Rahul Gandhi along with pornstar Nathalia Ramos in America’s most expensive hotel. The Rs 4000 he withdrew from standing in the line has been spent today.”

Image
Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

A reverse image search found that the photo was originally uploaded by Nathalia Ramos on her Facebook page on September 14, 2017. 

Ramos met Gandhi at the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles in September 2017, where the politician participated in a conference on social media.

The caption of Ramos' post says: "Last night with the eloquent and insightful Rahul Gandhi. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to meet and listen to so many brilliant thinkers from all parts and perspectives of the world. It is only with an open mind and open heart that we can really make the world a better place. Thank you Berggruen Institute for opening mine. #IdeasMatter".

Ramos is a television actress in the US. As a child actor, she played the lead character of Nina Martin in the Nickelodeon TV series 'House of Anubis', which started in 2011.

Here are a series of stills from the television series showing Ramos as Martin.

Industry profiles of the Ramos, for example here and here, do not mention that she has ever been involved in pornographic productions.

In September 2017, Rahul Gandhi went to United States and attended a session on social media at Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles in United States, as reported here in the HuffPost.

A video of the session where Rahul Gandhi spoke is also available on the institute’s YouTube channel.

Rumours that the pair were dating also emerged in Indian media after Ramos posted the photo with Gandhi, for example here

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