No, Joe Biden did not invite Manmohan Singh as chief guest to his inaugural ceremony

Political turmoil in the US is still brimming with uncertainty. A viral message claiming that Joe Biden has invited former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as a chief guest to his upcoming inaugural (swearing-in) ceremony has been doing rounds on the social media.

Fact Crescendo got in touch with Dr. Singh’s office, which denied such rumors. 

What’s the Claim?

Many people shared posts on Twitter and Facebook claiming the US president-elect Joe Biden has invited Dr. Manmohan Singh as a Chief Guest in his Presidential Swearing-in ceremony

Original Post – Facebook | Archive

FACT-CHECK

After a cliffhanger vote count, Joe Biden emerged as the winner of the race to the White House defeating Donald Trump. President-elect Joe Biden will take over office in January.

The inauguration of the president of the United States is a ceremony to mark the commencement of a new four-year term of the president of the United States. The next Presidential Inauguration will be held on 20 January 2021 at Washington, D.C.

However, Donald Trump is yet to accept the presidential election results. He refused to formally concede the US election and will challenge the Biden victory in the court. 

In such political scenarios, it is highly unlikely that Joe Biden would send out invitations for the inaugural ceremony to foreign leaders.

Besides, no media websites have reported this. If Biden had really sent an invitation to Dr. Singh, it would have been big news and the media wouldn’t have missed it. 

Its absence from the news casts big doubt about the veracity of the above-mentioned claim. 

To confirm the validity of the viral messages, Fact Crescendo contacted Dr. Manmohan Singh’s office. 

“Dr. Singh has not received such invitation from President-elect Joe Biden,” Dr. Singh’s office confirmed. “The possible swearing-in ceremony will be held in January. It is too early to say anything about it.”

No Foreign Leaders at Inauguration

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) has been responsible for the planning and execution of the Inaugural Ceremonies. 

Only persons with special invitations to the ceremony are admitted to the ceremony. JCCIC is also responsible for the printing and distribution of the invitations and tickets required to attend the event. 

Customarily, the distribution of invitations and tickets begins one or two weeks before the ceremony. 

Upon further research, we found out that foreign leaders aren’t usually invited to the Inauguration. Typically, only chiefs of diplomatic missions and their spouses attend the event to represent their countries.

At the time of Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, Associated Press reported that foreign leaders were not invited to his inauguration.

In the diplomatic notes sent to the foreign embassies by the then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, it is clearly mentioned, “exclusion of foreign leaders and top government officials is customary for U.S. presidential inaugurations.”

CONCLUSION

It is now clear that Joe Biden has not invited Dr. Manmohan Singh to his Inauguration. Dr. Singh’s office has also denied such rumors viral on social media.