The video went viral after many claimed that Congress leaders Pappu Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar were snubbed at a rally in Bihar on July 9. The two were reportedly stopped by security personnel from joining Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav in his vehicle. Yadav later clarified that it was not an ‘insult’ but part of security protocols.

X user @Bitt2DA posted the viral clip on July 9. (Archive)

पप्पू यादव की आँखों में आँसू क्यों है ??

किसने इसकी बेइज्जती की है ? कोई बताएगा pic.twitter.com/MbXLASHUIg

— Hardik Bhavsar (@Bitt2DA) July 9, 2025

The video was also shared by X user @ajeetbharti. At the time this article was written, the post had gathered more than 375,000 views. (Archive)

किस तरीके से ‘मारा’ कि बता नहीं सकते! बाघ का करेजा का ये हाल है बिहार में? pic.twitter.com/a5DZ7F6guZ

— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) July 9, 2025

The video was also shared by BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla. (Archive)

Bahut Bura hua Vro https://t.co/d29UJaigbU

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 9, 2025

Several other users on X, such as @krazyxuser, @voice_of_hindu2 and @PNRai1, among others, also shared the video with similar comments. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the narratives amplified on social media, we broke down the viral video into key frames and did a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to an article published by Zee News on September 6, 2018.

On September 6, 2018, Congress leader Pappu Yadav was attacked by Bharat Bandh supporters in the Sadar area of Khabra village, in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. He alleged that a group of demonstrators stopped his car, questioned him and the others in his vehicle, enquiring about their caste, and then went on to abuse and physically assault them. At the time, too, the video of Yadav in tears over the incident was viral.

Yadav had also posted about the incident on X in 2018. The translated text reads: “During the #SaveWomenMarch in Madhubani, our convoy was attacked by goons in the name of #BharatBandh, and workers were brutally beaten while being asked about their caste. Is there any governance in Bihar, or not!”

#महाजंगलराज का नंगा नाच#नारी_बचाओ_पदयात्रा में मधुबनी जाने के दौरान हमारे काफिले पर #BharatBandh के नाम पर गुंडों ने हमला किया,कार्यकर्ताओं को बुरी तरह जाति पूछ-पूछकर पीटा है। आखिर बिहार में कोई शासन-प्रशासन है, या, नहीं!CM @NitishKumar आप किस कुम्भकर्णी नींद में सोये हैं।

— Pappu Yadav (@pappuyadavjapl) September 6, 2018

Several news articles from that time by NDTV, ABP News, Aaj Tak, The Telegraph, and others also corroborated the incident.

We also found a longer version from which the now-viral clip was extracted. It was uploaded on September 6, 2018.

In this video, Pappu Yadav says that he was abused by the attackers, who may have even killed him if the guards weren’t around. He also claims that his phone calls to the police and chief minister went unanswered. After that, he breaks down in front of the cameras. The portion that is now viral begins around the 0:31-minute mark.

Thus, the video showing Pappu Yadav in tears while speaking to reporters is not recent, but from 2018.

The post After Cong leader Pappu Yadav stopped from entering Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi’s car in Bihar, old video of him crying viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Gandhi was booked for his comments about the Indian army during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022 that were allegedly derogatory. After missing the last five hearings in the case, he surrendered in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alok Verma, who approved his bail. The Congress MP was also told to furnish two personal bail bonds of Rs 20,000 each and provide two sureties of the same amount for being absent in previous hearings.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head, Amit Malviya, who has spread misinformation on several occasions in the past, was among those who shared the image on social media, claiming the man in black robes seen in the image was a judge. In his post on X, Malviya wrote, “This is the judge who is supposed to be hearing the case against Rahul Gandhi for insulting our Army and brave soldiers. He should immediately recuse himself.” Malviya later deleted his post.

National media panellist of the Congress, Surendra Rajput (@ssrajputINC), also posted the same image with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “This lone selfie of Shri Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi is enough to answer the countless allegations against him. Even the judge would only take a selfie if he truly believed in Rahul Ji’s innocence.” (Archive)

However, Rajput later updated the caption and removed the word “Judge”.

Several other X users such as @ravibhadoria, @MrSinha_, @JaipurDialogues, @arvindgunasekar, @ActivistSandeep, Congress spokesperson @priyanka81_INC, advocate and former AICC member @ashokbasoya, Congress Amroha district social media chairman @Afsarali190, journalist @arvindchotia, Congress UP state co-ordinator @akram_premiar, @AvkushSingh (who has often amplified pro-BJP content on X), were among those who posted the aforementioned image saying that it shows Gandhi with the judge who granted him bail in the defamation case. We also noticed that journalist Rohini Singh had reshared one of these posts.

Fact Check

The same day, we found a post with the same image shared by X user @Delhiite_  claiming that the individual in the image with Gandhi is an advocate, not a judge, and that his name is Syed Mahmood Hasan.

He is a lawyer/Advocate not a Judge.
His name is Syed Mahmood Hasan. pic.twitter.com/JYQQoMjdX3

— زماں (@Delhiite_) July 15, 2025

We then did a Google search for Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma, who was the judge in the MP/MLA  special magistrate court in Lucknow that granted the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha bail. We found his details and image on the Allahabad High Court’s website. As is clear from the screenshot of the web page attached below, Justice Verma is not the man seen in the viral photo with Gandhi.

Taking a cue from @Delhiite_’s post, we looked for a Syed Mahmood Hasan to verify whether he was the one in the photo with Gandhi.

We found Hasan’s X account, where his bio reads: “Syed Mahmood Hasan (Advocate), civil court, Lucknow high court, Lucknow bench, Lucknow”. However, the last post by Hasan on X was from May 25, 2020, wishing his followers for Eid.. The post also included a screenshot where he had shared his contact information.

Alt News reached out to Hasan, who confirmed that he was no judge but an advocate.

We also verified that the number we called was actually Hasan’s by double-checking his contact information on his advocate profile on the website soolegal.com. The last four digits of his contact number on the website matched the number we contacted.

Hasan’s pictures on his X profile also match the man seen with Rahul Gandhi in the viral image.

Additionally, if he were a judge, then there would be a record of judgments he passed. However, all records found under Syed Mahmood Hasan pointed to him being an advocate/lawyer.

We also came across a Facebook post made by Hasan where he clarified that he is not a judge, but an advocate.

Thus, claims that LoP Rahul Gandhi clicked a selfie with a judge are completely false. The man in the viral image is Syed Mahmood Hasan, an advocate.

The post Man seen with Rahul Gandhi in viral selfie is not the judge who granted him bail but a lawyer appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

X user ‘Squint Neon’ (@TheSquind) made similar claims while sharing these images, calling it an insult to the then-PM Manmohan Singh. (Archived link)

Another X user, Lolflix (@Lolflix), also shared the pictures with the caption, “Guess who was India’s Prime Minister?” (Archived link)

X user Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree), who often shares posts promoting the BJP, also shared the pictures. “The man in the blue turban was India’s Prime Minister for 10 years,” this person wrote in the caption. (Archived link)

Fact Check

There were a total of four images in the posts by social media users. We looked at each separately.

Image 1: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi

A reverse image search of this picture led us to a post by news agency ANI from April 26, 2017. The accompanying caption said that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met former PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi in Delhi pic.twitter.com/N5x7OzEeku

— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2017

Note that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was elected to power for a five-year term in 2004 and then again in 2009. So, Manmohan Singh served two terms as Prime Minister—between 2004 and 2014. In other words, this picture is from after Manmohan Singh’s term as PM. At the time, Sonia Gandhi was the Congress president.

Image 2: Sri Lankan PM Wickremesinghe with Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi

A reverse search of this image led us to an article on The New Indian Express site from November 24, 2017. The report says that Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders met Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The report added that she was accompanied by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma.

Thus, this picture is not from Manmohan Singh’s time as Prime Minister. At the time, Sonia Gandhi was the president of Congress.

Image 3: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh

We found the third picture in a National Herald report from January 26, 2019. The image was credited to senior Congress leader Anand Sharma. The report says that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met South African President Ramaphosa.

Anand Sharma’s X post from 2019 said that a Congress delegation led by then president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Ramaphosa. In 2019, Manmohan Singh was neither the PM nor heading the Congress. At the time, Rahul Gandhi was the president of the Opposition party.

Image 4: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with Sonia Gandhi, Anand Sharma and Manmohan Singh

After a reverse image search, we found the same image used in a WION report from October 5, 2019. The report states that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders, including Anand Sharma and former PM Manmohan Singh. At this time, Sonia Gandhi was the interim Congress president.

Thus, photos of meetings between foreign delegates and Congress leaders have resurfaced with misleading claims that Manmohan Singh was ignored by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. These images were after Manmohan Singh’s tenure as PM and were led, on the Congress’s side, by whoever was the party president. Singh was not meeting them as the Indian PM but as a Congress leader.

Since these meetings were between foreign leaders and the Opposition party, Rahul and Sonia Gandhi were seated in the centre as they were the Congress presidents at the time.

The post Did Sonia, Rahul Gandhi ‘disrespect’ ex-PM Manmohan Singh in meetings with foreign leaders? appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

On X, the official handle of BJP Goa shared the clip and claimed that in its desperation ahead of the Bihar elections, Congress had attached Gandhi’s image “at unwanted locations”. (Archive)

Heights of Desperation

Bihar Congress distributing Sanitary pads attached with Rahul Gandhi’s photos at unwanted locations ahead of Bihar Elections pic.twitter.com/HK5mDxouTW

— BJP Goa (@BJP4Goa) July 5, 2025

X user Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), who amplifies pro-BJP propaganda and misinformation on a regular basis,  on July 5 shared a video where a man wearing a saree shows a sanitary napkin with Rahul Gandhi’s image on it. Sinha identified the person who appeared in the video as @RatanRanjan_, and praised his ‘creativity’. (Archive)

Top level creativity by @RatanRanjan_ pic.twitter.com/JxcqwCFgb6

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) July 5, 2025

Another pro-BJP X user, Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree), had also posted the viral video on X on July 5 with the caption: “Their hereditary habit of sucking blood”. Bagree later deleted his post.

Several other social media users have shared these videos with similar claims.

Ratan Ranjan, who had originally shared the videos, has since deleted them. We noted that on his X bio, he described himself as a comedian. (Archive 1, 2)

‘Fake’, Says Congress, Files FIR

Upon running a relevant keyword search, we found several news reports related to the viral clip. According to a report by the Times of India from July 6, Congress had filed an FIR regarding the circulation of the video with Rahul Gandhi’s image on the sanitary pad, and had called it fake.

The report, however, mentions that the boxes in which the pads were distributed in Bihar did have images of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Supriya Shrinate, who is in charge of Congress’s social media and digital platforms, too, clarified that the video was fake. She also shared on X a copy of the FIR that the party had filed against Ratan Ranjan and Arun Kosil in Bengaluru.

राहुल गांधी जी की तस्वीर का गलत इस्तेमाल करके Fake वीडियो बनाने के खिलाफ FIR दर्ज करा दी गई है

अभी औरों के ख़िलाफ़ भी एक्शन लिया जा रहा है pic.twitter.com/up42Z3GqJK

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) July 6, 2025

Further, we came across a tweet by Pawan Khera, chief of Congress’s media and publicity department, where he posted a video comparison, showing the fake viral video and the actual pack of sanitary pads distributed by the party. The latter do not have any image on the surface of the pad.

चोर चोरी से जाए हेराफेरी से ना जाए, प्रचारमंत्री जी खुद तो फेक वीडियो बनाने को लेकर ज्ञान देते है और उनकी ट्रोल आर्मी इस तरह के घिनौने फेक वीडियो बना कर बिहार में गंदा प्रोपगेंडा चला रही है! pic.twitter.com/Rs6NImE0x6

— Pawan Khera (@Pawankhera) July 5, 2025

Glaring Discrepancies & Admission of ‘Fakery’

The readers should also note that while Bihar Congress distributed pads in cardboard boxes, the viral video shows packets. If one notices carefully, it becomes apparent that the Rahul Gandhi image from the side of the boxes was cut and pasted on the orange-coloured packet of a popular brand of sanitary napkins that is available in the market. See comparison below: On the left side is a screengrab showing the packet from the viral video. On the right side is the box that was actually distributed (Photo taken from TOI report).

Also, the packet from which the pad with the Congress leader’s image is taken out in the viral video is not sealed, hence, it can be surmised that the content of the packet was possibly tampered with before the video was made.

We also found an interview of Ratan Ranjan on a YouTube channel named A2Z News TV, where he admits that the video he made was ‘fake’. At the 00.15-minute mark in the video the interviewer tells him that the video he made was ‘fake’. To this, Ranjan replies, “When did I claim it was factual!”.

Later in the interview, the anchor shows how a photo cut out of the Rahul Gandhi had been placed on a sanitary napkin so that the viral video could be made.

To sum up, sanitary napkins distributed by Bihar Congress to women in the state did not have Rahul Gandhi’s photo on them. The boxes, in which they were distributed, did, however, have Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s photos. The viral video does not show the actual box or the actual sanitary pads that were distributed.

The post Rahul Gandhi’s photo on sanitary pads distributed in Bihar? Congress files FIR over ‘fake’ video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

The caption accompanying the viral image reads, “For the last four days, everyone was worried about whoch foreign country Rahul Gandhi had travelled to. No one knew his whereabouts. Now see this highly condemnable and extremely shameful act by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. He attended the wedding of the son of India’s biggest enemy George Soros. Although friendship with the enemies of our country is his profession. Foolish Hindus who vote for Congress will never understand this.”

A verified X user named Naveen Chauhan posted a collage of some pictures of Alex Soros’ wedding, which also contained the picture in question, with the same viral message.

The image is widespread on X with the same claim.

It also made the rounds on Facebook.

We also noticed the image was also being circulated on Instagram. (Link 1, Link 2)

It had also made its way to messaging platform WhatsApp, along with the accompanying claim.

Fact Check

First, we noticed that the hands and fingers of the three individuals seen in the photo were deformed and unrealistic, which is an error typical of AI-generated images. We have indicated these in the picture provided below. The viral image also features a watermark of the artificial intelligence platform Grok in the bottom right corner.

Grok is the AI ​​chatbot of X. Images created by Grok have the same symbol as the one seen in the viral image.

This confirms that the viral image is not real, but has been created with the help of AI chatbot Grok. Alt News could not find the picture of Rahul Gandhi anywhere in the collection of images from Alex Soros’ wedding available online. (Link 1,Link 2) Moreover, there is no official confirmation of Rahul Gandhi having attended Soros’ wedding.

Vogue magazine published a compilation of Huma Abedin and Alexander Soros’ wedding photos which included 83 images from their wedding ceremony. None of these photos include Rahul Gandhi. Moreover, Huma wore two different dresses at the ceremony, but neither of these match the dress she is seen wearing in the viral photo.

Although Alt News cannot independently confirm whether Rahul Gandhi attended Alexander Soros’ wedding or not, it is clear that the photo in question was created with the help of AI.

The post Viral photo of Rahul Gandhi attending George Soros son’s wedding is AI-generated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Verified X user (@BeingPolitical1) shared the images of his interactions side-by-side, alleging that the same person was doubling as a porter and a student on different days. At the time of this article being written, the post racked up nearly 800,000 views and was reshared 5,000 times. (Archive)

Rahul Gandhi Drama Company

Ek din Coolie
Ek din Du ka student pic.twitter.com/u1hyGX5Xln

— Being Political (@BeingPolitical1) May 27, 2025

The pro-Right X handle, Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch), also shared the images with a similar claim. Alt News has previously called out this user for amplifying communal misinformation. (Archive)

US Polo shirt wearing DU student on odd days
Adidas shoe wearing Coolie on even days

This is how India became 4th largest economy under Modi Govt pic.twitter.com/rOiesqt9hm

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) May 27, 2025

Another X user, Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1), also posted the comparison images with the same claim. (Archive) 

वही कभी कुली बन जाते हैं वही कभी डियू के स्टूडेंट बन जाते हैं।

साला इसमें भी घोटाला
pic.twitter.com/8UQPQDg9ua

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) May 27, 2025

Other X users, such as @rahuldev2, @BesuraTaansane and @ChandanSharmaG also amplified these allegations. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the claims, we first looked for the source images used in the comparison.

On March 1, 2025, Rahul Gandhi shared some images from his meeting with porters at the New Delhi Railway Station. The Congress leader was thanking them for their service following the stampede that took place at the station on February 15, when the Maha Kumbh Mela was underway, in which at least 18 died, and many were injured.

अक्सर सबसे अंधकार भरे समय में ही इंसानियत की रोशनी सबसे ज़्यादा चमकती है।

नई दिल्ली रेलवे स्टेशन पर भगदड़ के दौरान कुली भाइयों ने इंसानियत की मिसाल पेश करते हुए कई यात्रियों की जान बचाई थी। इसके लिए मैंने देशवासियों की ओर से आज उनका धन्यवाद किया।

लेकिन ऐसे हादसों से सीख लेना… pic.twitter.com/w4DHfrGEdH

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 1, 2025

We also found a video of this interaction uploaded on Rahul Gandhi’s official YouTube channel on March 5.

The other picture, which allegedly shows the same person appearing to be a student, has been taken from a meeting between Rahul Gandhi and the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU). The official X handle of the Indian Youth Congress (@IYC) had posted about this meeting on May 27. 

LoP Shri @RahulGandhi interacted with DUSU students and united in the fight against BJP/RSS’s anti-reservation agenda.

“Not Found Suitable” (NFS) is the new face of Manuvad , a deliberate tool to exclude SC/ST/OBC candidates from education and leadership roles.

At Delhi… pic.twitter.com/o6zHdFSDu1

— Indian Youth Congress (@IYC) May 27, 2025

A video of this interaction was also shared on Gandhi’s YouTube channel on May 27.

Based on these images and videos, we closely examined the two people that social media users claimed were the same person. The comparison below clearly shows that these allegations do not hold water.

Alt News was also able to confirm the identity of the person highlighted in the DUSU meeting. He is Lokesh Choudhary, the joint-secretary of the student body (@Lokeshnsui9). On May 28, Choudhary also responded to the viral claims, calling them claims spread out of fear by Right-wing social media users and the BJP.

Thus, claims implying that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress employed ‘actors’ to pose as different people for their interactions are baseless. Alt News was able to verify that the two people social media users claimed were the same are, indeed, two different individuals, with one of them being Delhi University student body secretary Lokesh Choudhary.

The post Allegations that same person posed as porter on one occasion and DU student on another with Rahul Gandhi baseless appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Sharing two images on X, user Manoj Srivastava (@ManojSr60583090) wrote, “Jyoti Malhotra, caught spying for Pakistan, is with traitor Rahul Gandhi, it is a strange coincidence that every traitor is seen with Rahul Gandhi.” 

Another X user, Jayant Rokde (@jayant_rokade), also shared the pictures with a similar caption.

Several others also linked her to Rahul Gandhi. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Fact Check

Image 1: A reverse image search of Rahul Gandhi’s photo with ‘Jyoti’, who is in a blue saree, led us to several news reports from 2018 in which a very similar image appeared. However, the woman in the photo is then-Congress MLA from Rae Bareli, Aditi Singh, not Jyoti Malhotra. Below is a screenshot from a report by ABP News dated May 7, 2018.

Taking cue from the caption in the ABP report, we looked at Singh’s Facebook page, where she had shared the same photo in 2017, wishing Rahul Gandhi on his birthday. Note that Singh resigned from Congress in 2021 and joined the BJP. She is currently a BJP MLA from Rae Bareli.

The comparison below clearly shows that Jyoti Malhotra’s face has been superimposed on Singh’s face in the viral photo.

Image 2: To check the image where Rahul Gandhi can be seen with a woman in a blue kurta, Alt News performed a reverse image search and found a similar image posted on Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page on September 18, 2022. In this picture, too, the woman’s face is different and not of the arrested YouTuber.

We also found another picture of Rahul Gandhi with the same woman in the blue kurta on X account of the Mahila Congress. This was also shared in September 2022 during Kerala run of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

On comparing the viral image with the one on Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page, we found that Jyoti Malhotra’s face had been superimposed on it.

Also, we found no credible news reports indicating the two had met.

To sum up, the viral pictures are not of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra but of him with other women. These original pictures from 2017 and 2022 have been digitally manipulated by superimposing Jyoti Malhotra’s face on others to make it seem like they had met before. Similarly baseless claims linking Jyoti Malhotra to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav also did the rounds on social media. Alt News had fact checked these too. Read: Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, seen with PM Modi? False claim shared and Viral photo of Akhilesh Yadav with Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, is fake

The post Viral photos of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra are morphed appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Priyanka Jha.

Amidst this, another video of Gandhi was doing the rounds on social media. In this, he can be seen breaking over 140 coconuts with bare hands. All in a matter of seconds. This video was shared by several supporters of the Congress and users on social media with the claim that it was a powerful display of strength by the party leader. In an apparent dig at the BJP, they said that the party’s leaders were hospitalised when Gandhi did not actually even push them; “What would have happened if he really did?”

Congress spokesperson and media panelist Surendra Rajput shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and said, “What if they actually got shoved?” (Archived link)

सच में धक्का लग जाता तो?pic.twitter.com/Q8mIMay7ff

— Surendra Rajput ‏ (@ssrajputINC) December 20, 2024

Social media influencer Acharya Confucius also shared the video and wrote, “It is good that he pushed lightly. If he really landed a punch, their skulls would have split open.” (Archived link)

अच्छा हुआ हल्का सा धक्का ही मारा, एकाध घूंसा मार देता तो खुपड़िया का कमल खिल जाता!
pic.twitter.com/i6IwSSAyXN

— आचार्य कन्फ़्यूशियस (@AchryConfucious) December 20, 2024

Digital creator Pardeep Kumar Sharma posted the video on his Facebook and Instagram accounts and wrote, “They were hospitalised after not getting pushed. What if they actually did?” (Archived link 1, Link 2)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Pardeep Kumar Sharma (@pradeep.pk51987)

The video received much traction on Facebook and X with similar captions.

Fact Check

Alt News searched for media reports related to the viral video, but neither did it find any press coverage on the leader achieving this feat nor any information on when and where this happened. Something like this would have received at least some press attention.

A reverse image search using frames from the viral video led us to similar clips showing other individuals in place of Gandhi.

We ultimately came across a YouTube short featuring similar footage from October 16 last year. Turns out, this was part of a full video uploaded on the Guinness World Records’s YouTube channel on December 20, 2017 with a Hindi caption saying, “Most coconuts smashed in one minute”. (Archived link 1, Archived link 2)

We then found a news report by NDTV India from December 23, 2017 featuring this video. The report says that the video shows Kerala resident P Dominic breaking 122 coconuts with his bare hands in just 60 seconds. The feat was recorded by Guinness World Records, the report adds. (Archived link)

On closely comparing the video shared by Guinness World Records and the latest viral clip of Rahul Gandhi, it is clear that the viral footage has been morphed. As you can see below the people surrounding Dominic in the footage from 2017 are the same as seen in the Rahul Gandhi footage on the left. 

We also noticed that other similar videos with individuals other than Rahul Gandhi had a ‘Viggle.AI’ watermark, indicating that most of these were created with the help of artificial intelligence. In the Rahul Gandhi video, (screengrab above) the watermark seems to be covered with a ‘Follow’ sticker. (Archived link)

Thus the viral clip is actually a 2017 video of a man from Kerala smashing coconuts, featured in Guinness World Records. This old video was morphed using AI to make it seem like Rahul Gandhi was breaking the coconuts in a show of strength.

The post Video showing Rahul Gandhi smashing 140 coconuts in apparent dig at BJP is morphed appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

During protests by both NDA and the Opposition on Thursday and the resulting chaos outside the Parliament building, both sides allege that they were pushed, shoved and suffered injuries. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that he suffered an injury to his knee and wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker to look into the matter. Meanwhile, two BJP MPs, Pratap Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput, were also hurt and hospitalized as they sustained injuries to the head. They have reportedly been admitted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lal Hospital.

Against this backdrop, Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur shared a video of Rahul Gandhi on X (formerly Twitter) where the latter is responding to reporters. In the video, Gandhi can be heard saying, “Dekhiye, haan kiya hai, kiya hai, magar thik hai… dhakka-mukki se humein kuch hota nahi hai.. Magar…” (See, yes it happened, it happened but it’s alright, we are not perturbed by scuffles… But…).

Thakur posted this with a Hindi caption that translates to: “Rahul Gandhi himself is admitting that he has pushed, and is shamelessly saying that nothing is achieved by pushing. Due to his push, a senior MP’s head got fractured, two MPs are admitted in hospital and Rahul ji is saying that nothing happens due to push. Arrogance, tyranny and dictatorship run in the veins of the Gandhi family…shameful.” (Archive)

राहुल गांधी ख़ुद मान रहे हैं कि उन्होंने धक्कामुक्की की है, और बड़ी बेशर्मी से कह रहे हैं कि धक्का मुक्की से कुछ नहीं होता।

इनके धक्के से एक वरिष्ठ सांसद का सर फट गया, दो सांसद अस्पताल में भर्ती हैं और राहुल जी कह रहे धक्के से कुछ नहीं होता।

अहंकार, अत्याचार और तानाशाही गांधी… pic.twitter.com/MSD8UZey55

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) December 19, 2024

BJP leader Amit Malviya, who is in-charge of the party’s information technology cell, also shared the same video on X claiming “Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi admits on camera to having assaulted BJP MP Pratap Sarangi…” (Archive)

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi admits on camera to having assaulted BJP MP Pratap Sarangi, leaving him grievously injured. This calls for criminal charges against him. There is overwhelming evidence, video footage and his own admission to convict Rahul Gandhi. The law must… pic.twitter.com/WSxCDD23Pz

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 19, 2024

BJP’s Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya also posted the same on X with the claim that Rahul Gandhi admitted to manhandling BJP MPs. (Archive)

After admitting to manhandling, Shri Rahul Gandhi shamelessly dismisses his aggressive behaviour by saying, “Nothing happens with a push.”

It’s shameful that he downplays an incident that has caused a head injury to a senior MP and two MPs being hospitalized, all due to his… pic.twitter.com/mmtN0ly8Hs

— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) December 19, 2024

The same video and the claim that Gandhi “admitted” to assaulting BJP MPs was also amplified by BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla (@Shehzad_Ind, the party’s Gujarat media co-chief Zubin Ashara (@zubinashara) as well as the BJP’s Assam X handle (@BJP4Assam). (Archives 1, 2, 3).

X user Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) who identifies as a Hindu Rights Activist and shares communal propaganda and misinformation regularly, also claimed the same. (Archive) 

Needless to say, the posts and Rahul Gandhi’s video are went viral across social media platforms after BJP MP Pratap Sarangi claimed that Gandhi had pushed an MP who fell on him causing him to fall down. “I was standing near the stairs when Rahul Gandhi came and pushed an MP who then fell on me…” he told news agency ANI.

Fact Check

We found that the viral video being shared by BJP leaders is clipped from a slightly longer video of Rahul Gandhi on the Parliament premises shared by ANI. (Archive)

#WATCH | Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi says, “This might be on your camera. I was trying to go inside through the Parliament entrance, BJP MPs were trying to stop me, push me and threaten me. So this happened…Yes, this has happened (Mallikarjun Kharge being pushed). But we do not… https://t.co/q1RSr2BWqu pic.twitter.com/ZKDWbIY6D6

— ANI (@ANI) December 19, 2024

On carefully listening to the video, we found that Rahul Gandhi was responding to reporters asking him about what happened during the scuffle. When a reporter specifically asks him “Kharge ji ke saath dhakka-mukki hui hai?” (Was Kharge ji subjected to jostling and shoving?), Rahul Gandhi responds by saying “… Haan kiya hai, kiya hai, magar thik hai… dhakka-mukki se humein kuch hota nahi hai…” (Yes, it happened, it happened, but it’s fine… the pushing and shoving does not affect us).

Below is a slowed-down clip of the same exchange captured by the Press Trust of India (PTI) where the question can be clearly heard.

Note that ANI’s post on X and its longer report (screenshot below) with the same video also clearly specify that Rahul Gandhi’s response was to a question on Kharge being pushed. There is no reference of him admitting to the pushing anyone.

To sum up, Alt News found the claim by BJP leaders that Rahul Gandhi admitted to pushing BJP leaders is false and misleading. The video shared by them has been taken out of context. The Congress leader was actually responding to a reporter’s query on Mallikarjun Kharge being pushed.

The post No, Rahul Gandhi did not admit to pushing BJP MPs on Parliament premises; claim by BJP leaders false appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Diti Pujara.

The video was shared by verified X user @SaffronSunanda who claimed that it was Rahul Gandhi who had fallen asleep. She remarked, in her post, “…Rahul Gandhi is just a Joke in Indian Politics”. (Archive)

This man sleeps during Parliament proceedings and debates and he wants to become Prime Minister of India.

Rahul Gandhi is just a Joke in Indian Politics. pic.twitter.com/paANOZnWv1

— Sunanda Roy (@SaffronSunanda) December 3, 2024

The post was then amplified by actor Paresh Rawal. Resharing the video, he wrote, “He is like a Bad joke with no Punch line!” referring to the Leader of Opposition. The post was later deleted. (Archive)

Several other Right-wing influencers amplified it. (Archives, 1, 2, 3, 4)

Upon checking, we found that this was not the first time this video went viral. In August, media outlet WION published a similar video as a Facebook reel titled, “Rahul Gandhi Caught Sleeping in Lok Sabha?”

On August 9, news channel NDTV published a video on its official YouTube channel with the title “Rahul Gandhi Sleeping In Lok Sabha | Giriraj Singh Reacts After Opposition MP Caught Sleeping In LS”. The previous day, Kerala-based media outlet Asianet News also published the same with the headline “Viral | Rahul Gandhi Caught Sleeping During Waqf Discussion? Rijiju & Giriraj Singh React”. However, neither of the videos shows Rahul Gandhi.

Who Was Kiren Rijiju Addressing?

Alt News found that the viral video had been been clipped from Parliamentary proceedings of Lok Sabha’s Monsoon session held on August 8 where the Union minister of parliamentary and minority affairs  introduced the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. A nine-hour-long video of the proceedings is available on news agency ANI’s YouTube channel. The chain of events seen in the viral video took place at the 4:01:13-minute mark.

Here, Rijiju was defending the Bill, against which Opposition leaders had raised concerns. “Dada was asking me if there are any Muslims in my constituency. There are many Muslim voters in my constituency…” he says just as BJP MP and Union minister of textiles Giriraj Singh, seated nearby, quips, “So gaye, so gaye…” (He has fallen asleep). This prompted laughter and ridicule from the treasury benches. Rijiju then jested, “This is why I tell you, dada, don’t talk all the time—you’ll fall asleep.”

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also commented, “If there’s a speech going on, will you go to sleep in the House?”

Rijiju further quipped, “I am not going to ask him what he was doing last night,” which led to uproar and protests from the Opposition.

During this entire exchange, not once did the camera focus on Rahul Gandhi.

In its fact-check report, Kerala-based publication Mathrubhumi contacted its Delhi bureau chief, Manoj Menon, who was present during the session. Menon said that it was senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy who had dozed off. However, it should be noted that the camera did not pan to any Opposition member while Rijiju spoke.

However, it is worth noting that ‘Dada’ is a term of endearment generally used for Bengali men.

Rahul Gandhi’s Clip From the Same Day

After carefully watching that day’s Parliamentary proceedings, Alt News found that the clip of Rahul Gandhi that is seen in the viral video is from same day (August 8). At the 3:17:45-minute mark of the ANI video, Rahul Gandhi can be seen sitting in the same position—head tilted to the side and arm stretched out against the backrest. In the viral clip, Gandhi’s image from this portion has been highly magnified, resulting in a noticeable degradation of image quality. This makes it hard to determine whether the Congress leader was simply looking down or asleep. Below is a screengrab of the moment.

Also, the three-second clip was looped repeatedly in the viral video, creating the false impression that the moment lasted longer than it actually did.

It’s also important to remember here that the camera focuses on Rahul Gandhi in the above position during Rijiju’s speech on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. However, in the viral video, the Opposition leader’s clip has been juxtaposed with Rijiju’s responses on the Bill, which actually happened later in the day. For clarity, look at the screengrabs below. The image on the left, showing Rahul Gandhi, is from 14:17 hours. The image on the right, where Rijiju and Giriraj Singh are pointing to the sleeping MP is from 15:01 hours.

So, the incidents happened at different times but were edited to make it seem like they were unfolding at the same time.

Also, Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the Opposition—a position that is often under constant scrutiny—and seated prominently at the front of the Opposition benches. It’s unlikely that him falling asleep during proceedings would have gone unnoticed by cameras in the House. We found no reports or videos since August that can conclusively show or indicate that it was Rahul Gandhi who had fallen asleep. Reports by news outlets such as The Indian Express as well as news agency ANI referred to whoever had fallen asleep simply as MP or an ‘Opposition MP’.

To sum it up, the video of Kiren Rijiju addressing and ridiculing an Opposition MP for falling asleep during House proceedings with the claim that the sleeping MP is Rahul Gandhi is misleading. A clip of Gandhi was edited into the video to create the false impression that Rijiju’s remarks against a sleeping MP were addressed to him.

The post Not Rahul Gandhi – MP who Kiren Rijiju ridicules in viral video for sleeping in House is not the leader of Opposition appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Retired Major General Harsha Kakar shared the image on X and wrote, “Americans want to know if @RahulGandhi is from India or Pak. Which individual goes abroad to abuse his own home. Unheard in the world. Only exception is this man. Will @INCIndia @sampitroda @kharge @SupriyaShrinate & @Jairam_Ramesh claim this is a Congress custom.” (Archive)

Americans want to know if @RahulGandhi is from India or Pak. Which individual goes abroad to abuse his own home. Unheard in the world. Only exception is this man. Will @INCIndia @sampitroda @kharge @SupriyaShrinate & @Jairam_Ramesh claim this is a Congress custom. pic.twitter.com/nEfD2K3EkP

— Maj Gen Harsha Kakar (@kakar_harsha) September 10, 2024

The tweet has received over 5 Lakh views and reshared over 6,600 times.

The same image was also shared by an X user named Riniti Chatterjee Pandey. (Archive)

अब तो अमेरिकी भी पूछ रहे हैं कि राहुल गांधी भारत से है या पाकिस्तान से ? pic.twitter.com/9iiXkEKemE

— Riniti Chatterjee Pandey (@mainRiniti) September 11, 2024

At the time of this report being written, this tweet has been viewed close to 1.5 Lakh times and reshared over 4,200 times.

Other users who have shared the same image include Neetu Garg (@NeetuGarg6), who, according to her X bio, is linked to the BJP Mahila Morcha and is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah.

Alt News has also received requests on its WhatsApp helpline number (76000 11160) to authenticate the image.

The Image was Viral in the Past as well

Rahul Gandhi visited the US last year as well and delivered a talk in San Francisco, California, in May 2023. Several BJP leaders had then expressed their displeasure at the Congress leader’s speech. Some even said that he was speaking the language of Pakistan. The same ‘newspaper clipping’ had gone viral then as well.

Twitter user Janmajit Sinha (@JSinha007) shared the image of the apparent newspaper report on June 21, 2023. He claimed that the San Francisco-based newspaper published the report because Rahul Gandhi had spoken in a way only an enemy of India could. The tweet has been retweeted over 1000 times. (Archive)

VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi (@Sadhvi_prachi) had shared the image on June 19, 2023. The tweet has received over 1.35 lakh views. (Archive)

Pappu From India or Pakistan ?#PappuDiwas pic.twitter.com/Dc4saXTVMb

— Dr. Prachi Sadhvi (@Sadhvi_prachi) June 19, 2023

Several other users such as @SVishnuReddy, @POLITICALCRIT14, @sarmabjp and other social media users also shared the image with similar claims.

Fact Check

We came across several striking discrepancies in the news report which are usually not seen in newspapers. The text in the image lacks consistency when it comes to the format. It is also filled with grammatical errors and typographical errors, which are unusual for a newspaper (highlighted below). The arrangement of the lines and the lettering look similar to those in texts translated using Google lens.

Besides, the ‘report’ got the name of the place where Rahul Gandhi had given his speech wrong. It mentions that the event happened in ‘Santa Claus, California’ while the Congress leader made his address in Santa Clara, California. We also noticed that at the top left corner of the image, a part of a letter can be seen which is not in English. It looks like Hindi script.

We translated the text from English to Hindi and ran a reverse image search on the picture. This led us to several social media posts that contained this Hindi report.

Vivek Pandey, who, according to his Twitter bio is the chief of Rashtravadi Hindu Mahasabha, shared the Hindi report image on June 5. (Archive)

अमेरिकी पूछ रहे हैं की राहुल भारत के है या पाकिस्तान को???
प्रश्न तो सही है।।।। pic.twitter.com/dat5ZMDGmM

— Vivek Pandey (@INDVivekPandey_) June 5, 2023

When we translated the Hindi text to English using Google translate, the result we got was remarkably similar to the image shared by social media users. This confirms that the apparent English news report by a San Francisco newspaper is actually a Google translated version of a Hindi report.

We also looked up the list of non-English languages newspapers published in California and found that as of now, no Hindi newspaper is published in California. In fact, the only Hindi newspapers available in the US are those that are shipped from India.

Therefore, neither the viral English report nor the Hindi one is from any San Francisco newspaper or any US-based newspaper. The claim made by the Right Wing users that a San Francisco-based newspaper questioned Rahul Gandhi’s allegiance to India is false. The same image had gone viral in the past as well.

The post Viral ‘US newspaper report’ questioning Rahul Gandhi’s nationality is fake appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

The official X page of BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) shared the above-mentioned clip on September 11 and wrote, “… Rahul Gandhi has made his intentions clear about ending reservations for SC, ST, and OBC!” (Archive)

देख रहे हो बिनोद, राहुल बाबा का असली चेहरा

राहुल गांधी ने एससी, एसटी और ओबीसी के लिए आरक्षण खत्म करने के बारे में अपने इरादे स्पष्ट कर दिए हैं ! pic.twitter.com/ZscpgWv6Sl

— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) September 11, 2024

Premium subscribed X user Pradeep Bhandari (@pradip103) shared the viral clip on September 10 with the following caption: “RAHUL GANDHI’S AGENDA EXPOSED! RAHUL AND CONGRESS INTENDS TO END RESERVATION IN INDIA. THIS IS WHY THEY HAD SNATCH RIGHTS OF DALITS IN KARNATAKA. CONGRESS IS ANTI DALIT!” (Archive)

RAHUL GANDHI’S AGENDA EXPOSED!

RAHUL AND CONGRESS INTENDS TO END RESERVATION IN INDIA.

THIS IS WHY THEY HAD SNATCH RIGHTS OF DALITS IN KARNATAKA.

CONGRESS IS ANTI DALIT! pic.twitter.com/ascXAfgUY3

— Pradeep Bhandari(प्रदीप भंडारी) (@pradip103) September 10, 2024

Several other pages and users such as @BJP4Haryana, @TheSquind, @AshokShrivasta6, @RealBababanaras, shared the same clip with similar claims.

Fact Check

We found that the clip was from an interview and interaction session with the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi at Georgetown University. The full interview is available on Rahul Gandhi’s official YouTube channel.

At the 53:37 mark of the video, an individual asks Gandhi, “In your talk, you mentioned caste and reservation… I would like to know your and your party’s thoughts on at what point, if at all, would we move away or would you move away from the idea of caste-based reservations being a permanent solution to the underlying grassroots issues that necessitate such a reservation-based system. At what point, we as a society but more importantly, you and your party look at caste-based reservation as a treatment of the symptoms and not the actual problem”?

Rahul Gandhi in response begins by citing statistics that depict the disparity in representation of individuals from underprivileged castes and classes such as Dalits, tribals, OBCs, and minorities in decision-making areas of the country. Gandhi adds: “… the fact of the matter is they are not getting participation and the problem is that 90 per cent of India is not able to play. Go through the list of every single business leader in India, show me the tribal name, show me the Dalit name, show me the OBC name. Out of the top 200, I think there is one OBC. They are 50 per cent of India. We are not treating the symptom, that is the problem“. At the  57:00 mark, the viral part of the interview begins, at this point, continuing his afore-mentioned thought, the Congress leader states, “It (cast-based reservations) is not the only tool. There are other tools. But, we will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place and India is not a fair place…”

To sum up, the question posed to Rahul Gandhi was about the Congress party’s stance on the future of caste-based reservations. At no point did he suggest doing away with them. On the contrary, he elaborated on the importance and necessity of such reservations. The part of the interview which is viral, where Gandhi can be heard saying that they would ‘scrap reservations when India is a fair place’, is being shared without context. In the same breath, Rahul Gandhi stated that ‘India is not a fair place’. This part of the sentence has been edited out in the viral video.

Hence, the claim that Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress or INDIA bloc would scrap reservations when they come to power is false. The viral video is a part of an hour-long interview and interaction and the six-second clip is being shared sans context.

On September 11, the Congress MP issued a clarification on this. He said, “Yesterday someone misrepresented my statement that I am against reservation. But let me make it clear – I am not against reservation. We will take reservation beyond the limit of 50 per cent.”

The post Rahul did not say ‘will end reservation’; Clipped video shared by BJP distorts Gandhi’s statement appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

The author of the OpIndia article criticised this, calling it “an outright secularization of Hinduism.” They argued that “religion is the one aspect that is not and should not be secular; however, the prince of the grand old party is secularizing Hindu festivals solely to strengthen his secular credentials.” Here is an archive of one of the initial versions of the article.

The same story was also published by OpIndia Hindi, featuring a cover image with two photos of Rahul Gandhi wearing a skullcap. (Archive)

राहुल गाँधी अक्सर जब हिंदू त्योहारों पर पोस्ट करते हैं तो उनके पोस्टों में हिंदू देवी-देवताओं की तस्वीरें पूरी तरह गायब रहती हैं। ऐसे में सवाल तो उठता है कि भगवान के साकार रूप से समस्या क्या है?https://t.co/u6Zm9nq9UU

— ऑपइंडिया (@OpIndia_in) August 26, 2024

The claim was amplified by Right-wing influencer @MrSinha_, who uses his social media handles to share communal propaganda regularly. (Archive)

Rahul Gandhi never uses Hindu gods/goddess picture while wishing on our festivals..
It seems he also follows the “Idol worshipping is haram” philosophy… pic.twitter.com/6DJXAvrVhn

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) August 26, 2024

BJP leader Giriraj Singh also amplified the same claim through a graphic. (Archive)

OMG pic.twitter.com/GFwE1Mv7yA

— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) August 26, 2024

Other users also amplified this claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

Fact Check

We looked up some of the tweets by Gandhi in the past and found that the claim made by OpIndia and the Right Wing was false. More specifically, Gandhi has used pictures of Hindu deities several times in his social media posts.

He tweeted a picture of Sri Krishna in 2019 while wishing his followers on Janmashtami.

आप सभी को जन्माष्टमी के पावन पर्व की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं। #HappyJanmashtami pic.twitter.com/DFIdwUeGHB

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 23, 2019

Even on Navratri, Gandhi shared an image from a Pandal in Chandi Bazar, Jamnagar.

Day ends with visit to Navratri Pandal, Chandi Bazar, Jamnagar pic.twitter.com/iujZAM4cHa

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 25, 2017

In 2015, he used Hindu deity Maa Durga’s image to wish his followers on Durga Puja.

दुर्गा पूजा के शुभ अवसर पर आप सभी को हार्दिक शुभकामनायें pic.twitter.com/0KE8pUVW9c

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 19, 2015

Some other instances where Gandhi used pictures of gods and goddesses include the occasion of Vishu in 2021, Buddha Purnima in 2020, Basava Jayanti in 2023, Ganesh Chaturthi in 2015, 2022 and 2023 and Mahavir Jayanti in 2020.

Hence, the claim made by Right-wing users and OpIndia that Gandhi does not share pictures of Hindu deities is false. The entire article published by the propaganda outlet is baseless. Rahul Gandhi has shared many images of Hindu deities in the past.

The post Rahul Gandhi has shared images of Hindu deities several times; RW claim, OpIndia article have no basis appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

While the Opposition accused Narendra Modi of neglecting Manipur and criticised him for not visiting the violence-hit state, the ruling dispensation accused Rahul Gandhi of using the victims of Manipur for gaining political mileage. It is important to note that the Congress leader has recently assumed the role of Leader of the Opposition in the House for the first time, and has been vocal on several issues, including Manipur. 

Accompanied by his colleagues and supporters, Rahul Gandhi spoke with the victims of the Manipur violence and their families. A tweet shared by the Congress leader contained a video from the relief camp, in which he stated that this was his third visit to Manipur since the violence had broken out. He urged the Prime Minister to visit the state, listen to the locals, and make an appeal for peace. Gandhi assured the victims that he would advocate for them in parliament and pressure the government to intervene in the crisis.

मणिपुर में हिंसा शुरू होने के बाद, मैं तीसरी बार यहां आ चुका हूं, मगर अफसोस स्थिति में कोई सुधार नहीं है – आज भी प्रदेश दो टुकड़ों में बंटा हुआ है।

घर जल रहे हैं, मासूम ज़िंदगियां खतरे में हैं और हज़ारों परिवार relief camp में जीवन काटने पर मजबूर हैं।

प्रधानमंत्री को मणिपुर खुद… pic.twitter.com/8EaJ2Tn6v8

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 11, 2024

Recently, Gandhi also visited Uttar Pradesh, where he met victims of a stampede and the mother of the late Indian Army Captain Anshuman Singh. In this case, too, his efforts to show solidarity with the victims and their families have been perceived by the ruling party as a political stunt. 

Aaj Tak and other major Hindi news channels ran several tickers in live debates on Rahul Gandhi’s Manipur visit accusing him of playing politics and taking advantage of the tragedy.

Aaj Tak

As seen on the news channel Aaj Tak, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia questioned Congress, saying that Rahul Gandhi took up these visits for photo opportunities, but ran away when there was a discussion in Parliament. Anchor Anjana Om Kashyap echoed this sentiment by questioning Congress spokesperson Alok Sharma about whether Rahul’s visit came as a relief for the residents of Manipur or if it was merely for political traction.

The tickers running on the TV channel during this debate included:

• Relief for Manipur or political mileage!

• New commotion, full plan of politics!

• Who is fueling the fire in Manipur?

These tickers or were not attributed to any BJP spokesperson. In other words, there was no mention that these were allegations made by a political party. Without attribution, these appeared to be the views or questions of the channel itself.

Times Now Navbharat

On Times Now Navbharat, an anchor raised questions about the Opposition’s objections to the Prime Minister’s visit to Russia. He asked whether the Opposition was attacking the government by comparing PM Modi’s visit to Russia to Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Manipur. The anchor attempted to introduce a Hindu-Muslim spin to the debate by questioning why Rahul Gandhi was concerned about the plight of the people of Manipur, but looked the other way when it came to the suffering of “Hindu mothers and daughters in Bengal”.

The tickers running on the channel during this show included the following:

• Modi leaves for Russia, why is the Opposition miffed?

• Does Congress consider LoP Rahul as the country’s PM?

• Modi in Moscow, Rahul in Manipur, full politics on the visit?

• Why does Rahul feel so hurt by Modi’s Moscow visit?

• Third visit to Manipur in 13 months, what about West Bengal?

News 18

Anchor Aman Chopra of News 18 said that Rahul Gandhi was on a tour of Manipur and was also being praised on social media. But at the same time, questions are being asked whether Rahul has gone to Manipur to heal its wounds or to find a political opportunity? Has Rahul Gandhi gone to share the pain of the people of Manipur or has this tour of Rahul been a part of ‘violence tourism’? Chopra further stated that this question was being raised because the Prime Minister had said in Parliament that Manipur was being used for political gains. And BJP leaders had said that some people were trying to incite violence in Manipur, who could not tolerate peace. Prime Minister had said that work was being done to add fuel to the fire in Manipur, Chopra added. 

The tickers running during this program included:

• Relief for Manipur or an opportunity?

• Was Rahul’s visit a political opportunity?

The statements in the tickers were not present as allegations by the BJP.

On July 8, in a live between Congress spokesperson Alok Sharma and Aaj Tak anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, Sharma accused Aaj Tak of playing politics and misrepresenting Rahul Gandhi’s Manipur visit. In response, the anchor said that this was the BJP’s allegation but the channel was not sending such a message so they had removed a ticker. The ticker read, ‘ Who is adding fuel to the fire in Manipur?

BREAKING
Alok Sharma, Senior Spokesperson of Congress Party was involved in a heated debate with Anjana Om Kashyap.

Just Watch the counter argument of Alok Sharma pic.twitter.com/anvRrINbx8

— Saibpal Pandit (@PanditSaibpal) July 8, 2024

It is worth noting that the ruling party’s questioning of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Manipur was echoed by these news channels, and the charges brought by the BJP were presented as the opinion of the media outlet without any attribution. Generally, taking the questions of the Opposition to the ruling party is considered a duty the media; in this case, it was the opposite. For instance, the BJP questioned why Rahul Gandhi did not visit West Bengal if he was so concerned about the victims. The mainstream media echoed this question, blurring the distinction between the role of a political party and that of a media outlet. Not stopping at that, an anchor on Navbharat Times communalised the issue by bringing in the Hindu angle. 

The tickers used in these bulletins were particularly problematic as the channels did not specify where those statements had come from. Using statements without quotes or attribution and passing them off as news is unethical. Attributing a quote to whoever it came from is one of the basic lessons of journalism that was ignored in these shows. 

The post Rahul Gandhi in Manipur: Hindi news channels presented BJP’s charges of politicking as their own editorial stance appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

On March 5, an appellate court ordered Pandita, an independent journalist and author, to pay the original ask of INR5 million (US$59,900) plus 6% interest, totaling INR7.5 million, from the date of the suit’s filing. This compensation was for Sidhu’s alleged “loss of reputation and goodwill, mental agony, and hardship due to unfounded derogatory remarks.”  

On May 28, the high court stayed the appellate court’s decision after it was revealed that Pandita was not even aware of the trial proceedings against him and had no opportunity to defend himself, according to CPJ’s review of the court ruling.

The order stemmed from a December 13, 2014, report by Pandita, who worked with The Hindu newspaper as an opinion and special stories editor at the time, that has since been withdrawn but was reviewed by CPJ. While it is not clear why the publication withdrew the story, The Hindu initially defended Pandita’s report in a response to Sidhu’s legal notice to the publication as fair comment, according to the Mumbai Press Club.

The report accused Sidhu of negligence in his duties as Inspector general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) operations in Chhattisgarh. The original defamation suit filed by Sidhu was dismissed by a lower court in Mohali on September 16, 2017, but Sidhu challenged this judgment, leading to the appellate court’s recent decision.

The report claimed that Sidhu did not perform his duties properly during a Maoist attack on December 1, 2013, which resulted in the deaths of 14 people. Pandita alleged that Sidhu took nearly four hours to reach the location despite being only 400 meters (440 yards) away. Sidhu contested these allegations, which were summarized in a statement published by The Hindu, asserting that he was the first to reach the troops and provided proper leadership.

In his defense, Pandita’s lawyers argued that the report was not personal, did not invade Sidhu’s privacy, and was written with due care and caution, according to a news report reviewed by CPJ. They emphasized that the articles were published as part of Pandita’s journalistic duties and were based on eyewitness accounts and responses from CRPF officials.

“The articles were published in relation to the conduct of a public servant, in exercise of public duties, and thus the respondent being a public servant cannot question foul play,” Pandita’s legal team argued. Pandita also maintains that he reached out to Sidhu’s superiors for their right to reply, and that their responses were included in the story.

Pandita declined to respond to CPJ’s request for comment, and Sidhu has not yet replied to CPJ’s text message.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

News agencies ANI and PTI published reports with images of Rahul Gandhi at a camp surrounded by some people.

ANI captioned the image as “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visits flood-affected victims at relief camp in Fulertal (X/@INCIndia).” PTI in its report alluded to a tweet by Rahul Gandhi where he extended his support towards victims of the Assam floods, and wrote that Gandhi had visited a flood-relief camp at Fulertal in the Cachar district of Assam.

News outlets such as The Hindu, NDTV, The Times of India, The Indian Express, India Today, Deccan Chronicle, The Week, Zee News and several others published reports of Rahul Gandhi apparently meeting flood-affected people in a relief camp in Assam’s Fulertal.

Congress MP K C Venugopal also tweeted the same images of Rahul Gandhi inside a camp and wrote that Gandhi had visited flood victims in Assam. (Archive)

Accompanied Lok Sabha LOP Sh. @RahulGandhi ji as he met flood victims in Assam and visited Manipuri refugee camps in Assam and Manipur.

The Assam flood is an annual phenomenon, killing hundreds and destroying the livelihoods of lakhs of citizens. It is truly shocking that the… pic.twitter.com/lpaK01imwB

— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) July 8, 2024

Fact Check

Since ANI had cited the Indian National Congress’s X handle as its source for the photo, we looked for the same and came across the concerned tweet. 

It contained the images used in the media reports. However, @INCIndia wrote in the tweet: “Leader of Opposition Shri @RahulGandhi met refugees of Manipur violence at a relief camp in Assam.

Phulertal, Assam”

नेता विपक्ष श्री @RahulGandhi ने असम में मौजूद राहत शिविर में मणिपुर हिंसा के शरणार्थियों से मुलाकात की।

फुलेरताल, असम pic.twitter.com/gD8lZlBU10

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 8, 2024

There is no mention of flood victims in the tweet.

A video with the same visuals was also shared on Rahul Gandhi’s official Instagram page. The caption mentioned: “Dear people of Manipur, I come to you as your brother. I will do everything I can to bring back peace to all your lives. Mohabbat will lead us to a solution – I’m sure of it.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rahul Gandhi (@rahulgandhi)

The woman seen in the images used in the reports is visible in the thumbnail as well as in the video proper.

We spoke to a journalist of a national English daily based in Cachar district. He told Alt News, “There is no flood relief camp in Fulertal. Rahul Gandhi visited two camps here, both inhabited by refugees from adjoining Manipur district. The photo that has been used by many outlets is from one of these camps in Lakhipur block.”

To sum up, the reports that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Assam flood victims at a relief camp in Cachar district are false. Photos from his visit to a relief camp for victims of Manipur violence were falsely used by media outlets.

Incidentally, a team of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee led by president Bhupen Borah had submitted a memorandum to Rahul Gandhi on July 8 urging him to take up the issue of Assam floods in Parliament. This was tweeted from Assam Congress’s official X handle, but there was no mention of Gandhi meeting flood victims.

A team of APCC, led by President Shri @BhupenKBorah submitted a memorandum to Hon’ble LoP Shri @RahulGandhi Ji urging him to take up the issue of the perennial flood of Assam in Parliament.

There has been devastating damage to embankments, roads, bridges & Assam needs immediate… pic.twitter.com/lxcnNBtoEN

— Assam Congress (@INCAssam) July 8, 2024

Rahul Gandhi, too, tweeted about this. This is the tweet PTI mentioned in its report. However, there was no mention of him meeting the flood-hit people.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not visit flood relief camp in Assam’s Fulertal; false reports by PTI, ANI & mainstream media outlets appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

News agencies ANI and PTI published reports with images of Rahul Gandhi at a camp surrounded by some people.

ANI captioned the image as “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visits flood-affected victims at relief camp in Fulertal (X/@INCIndia).” PTI in its report alluded to a tweet by Rahul Gandhi where he extended his support towards victims of the Assam floods, and wrote that Gandhi had visited a flood-relief camp at Fulertal in the Cachar district of Assam.

News outlets such as The Hindu, NDTV, The Times of India, The Indian Express, India Today, Deccan Chronicle, The Week, Zee News and several others published reports of Rahul Gandhi apparently meeting flood-affected people in a relief camp in Assam’s Fulertal.

Congress MP K C Venugopal also tweeted the same images of Rahul Gandhi inside a camp and wrote that Gandhi had visited flood victims in Assam. (Archive)

Accompanied Lok Sabha LOP Sh. @RahulGandhi ji as he met flood victims in Assam and visited Manipuri refugee camps in Assam and Manipur.

The Assam flood is an annual phenomenon, killing hundreds and destroying the livelihoods of lakhs of citizens. It is truly shocking that the… pic.twitter.com/lpaK01imwB

— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) July 8, 2024

Fact Check

Since ANI had cited the Indian National Congress’s X handle as its source for the photo, we looked for the same and came across the concerned tweet. 

It contained the images used in the media reports. However, @INCIndia wrote in the tweet: “Leader of Opposition Shri @RahulGandhi met refugees of Manipur violence at a relief camp in Assam.

Phulertal, Assam”

नेता विपक्ष श्री @RahulGandhi ने असम में मौजूद राहत शिविर में मणिपुर हिंसा के शरणार्थियों से मुलाकात की।

फुलेरताल, असम pic.twitter.com/gD8lZlBU10

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 8, 2024

There is no mention of flood victims in the tweet.

A video with the same visuals was also shared on Rahul Gandhi’s official Instagram page. The caption mentioned: “Dear people of Manipur, I come to you as your brother. I will do everything I can to bring back peace to all your lives. Mohabbat will lead us to a solution – I’m sure of it.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rahul Gandhi (@rahulgandhi)

The woman seen in the images used in the reports is visible in the thumbnail as well as in the video proper.

We spoke to a journalist of a national English daily based in Cachar district. He told Alt News, “There is no flood relief camp in Fulertal. Rahul Gandhi visited two camps here, both inhabited by refugees from adjoining Manipur district. The photo that has been used by many outlets is from one of these camps in Lakhipur block.”

To sum up, the reports that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Assam flood victims at a relief camp in Cachar district are false. Photos from his visit to a relief camp for victims of Manipur violence were falsely used by media outlets.

Incidentally, a team of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee led by president Bhupen Borah had submitted a memorandum to Rahul Gandhi on July 8 urging him to take up the issue of Assam floods in Parliament. This was tweeted from Assam Congress’s official X handle, but there was no mention of Gandhi meeting flood victims.

A team of APCC, led by President Shri @BhupenKBorah submitted a memorandum to Hon’ble LoP Shri @RahulGandhi Ji urging him to take up the issue of the perennial flood of Assam in Parliament.

There has been devastating damage to embankments, roads, bridges & Assam needs immediate… pic.twitter.com/lxcnNBtoEN

— Assam Congress (@INCAssam) July 8, 2024

Rahul Gandhi, too, tweeted about this. This is the tweet PTI mentioned in its report. However, there was no mention of him meeting the flood-hit people.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not visit flood relief camp in Assam’s Fulertal; false reports by PTI, ANI & mainstream media outlets appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Following his visit, several Right-wing influencers began circulating an ANI clip on social media, alleging that Gandhi was asked to leave by the residents of Manipur. RW influencer @MrSinha_, who shares pro-BJP propaganda and misinformation on social media on a regular basis, tweeted the video, claiming that locals had chanted ‘Rahul Gandhi Go Back’ slogans. He deleted his tweet soon after. Here is an archive from Google Cache.

Another Right-wing influencer, Arun Pudur, who has a verified handle on X, tweeted the same video with the same claim. He additionally claimed that the Nehru-Gandhi clan were responsible for the destruction of the northeastern Hindu tribes. He also asked if Manmohan Singh ever visited the state during his tenure. (This question was answered by Alt News in the past.) (Archive)

“Go Back Rahul” slogans echo wherever Pappu went in Manipur. People know he reignites clashes in the state to help his CCP Masters.

Pidi IT Cell will call Manipuris Bhakts now

Did you know the Nehru-Gandhi clan destroyed our North Eastern Hindu tribes by blocking Sadhus… pic.twitter.com/2fDNoaBf0P

— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) July 9, 2024

Readers should note that Arun Pudur has been found amplifying communal misinformation several times in the past.

Verified account Bala (@erbmjha), another handle that regularly shares Right-wing propaganda and misinformation, also tweeted the video with the same claim and later deleted their tweet. Below is a screen-recording of the deleted tweet.

Other users also shared the viral clip with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Fact Check

Alt News found that the viral clip was posted by ANI on January 21, 2024. This shows that it is not a recent incident, as claimed. Furthermore, the incident took place in Ambagan area in Assam’s Nagaon district, and not in Manipur.

#WATCH | Assam: A large number of people carrying posters of ‘Rahul Gandhi go back’ and ‘Anyaya Yatra’ held a protest against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Ambagan area of Nagaon this evening. pic.twitter.com/e4fFIwqFSa

— ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2024

Upon a keyword search, we found a PTI copy published by Deccan Herald on January 21 itself. The incident happened on the day the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by Gandhi reached the Nagaon district in central Assam. According to the report, Gandhi was mobbed at a roadside eatery when he and some other leaders had stopped at the restaurant at Ambagan on their way to Rupohi.

Several other media outlets, including Jagran English, NDTV and ABP Live, reported on the incident. All three reports contains frames from the viral clip.

On the same day, other incidents of attacks were reported as well. Vehicles of Congress workers returning from the rally were allegedly attacked following which three members of the students’ wing were admitted to hospital with serious injuries. State Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah was also allegedly assaulted and Jairam Ramesh’s car reportedly attacked in two separate incidents in Sonitpur district, through which the rally reached Nagaon.

In response to these alleged attacks, Congress announced demonstrations across the country on January 22. Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal alleged that since the yatra’s entry in Assam, “relentless attacks on (our) convoys, properties and leaders” were carried out. The next day, Congress leaders from across the country held protests.

Thus, a video from January 21, 2024, showing Rahul Gandhi getting mobbed in the Nagaon district in Assam after the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra reached the state is currently viral after Gandhi’s recent visit to Manipur. Right-wing influencers falsely claimed that Gandhi was asked to go back by the residents of Manipur.

The post Old video from Assam peddled as ‘Go back Rahul Gandhi’ slogans in Manipur appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared the video of Rahul Gandhi, stating that opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calling all Hindus violent reflected the Congress party’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus.

Sheer audacity of LoP ⁦@RahulGandhi⁩ to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows ⁦@INCIndia⁩’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed. pic.twitter.com/8ZAXMrRsY8

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) July 1, 2024

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared the video claiming that Congress’s hatred for Hindus had crossed all limits. He wrote that Rahul Gandhi had said in Parliament that those who called themselves Hindus engaged in violence.

Hindu Hatred of Congress crossed all limits ! Yeh Nafrat Ki Dukan hai

Today in Parliament Rahul Gandhi says
“Jo log apne aap ko Hindu kehte hai woh hinsa hinsa hinsa karte hai”

Can this be said about any other community? What would be the result

After Sanatan Samapt, Hindu… pic.twitter.com/ovyTkIjcUu

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 1, 2024

BJP worker Smriti Irani commented, “Some people will never change. To them, I would say – being Hindu is not about position or prestige. We are Hindu by body, mind, thoughts, behaviour, and values.” (Archived link)

कुछ लोग सुधरेंगे नहीं। उनसे कहूँगी – हिंदू ना पद से है, ना प्रतिष्ठा से। हम हिंदू तन, मन, विचार, व्यवहार और संस्कार से हैं।

सनातन का परम सत्य है – हिंदू और हिंसा पर्याय नहीं। pic.twitter.com/peELRHiPfj

— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) July 1, 2024

BJP youth wing BJYM, BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda, other BJP leaders/MPs, and right-wing influencers also shared Rahul Gandhi’s video making similar claims.

Fact Check

Alt News found a longer version of the viral video on Parliament TV. To understand the full context of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, we watched the footage in its entirety. At the 18:01 mark, he is heard saying, “Mr. Modi once said in his speech that India has never attacked anyone, and that is because this country is a country of non-violence, this country is not a country of fear. All of our great leaders talked about non-violence, about eliminating fear. They said, ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’. Lord Shiv says ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’, displays the Abhay Mudra, talks about non-violence, and buries his trident into the ground. While those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all (pointing towards the ruling party MPs). Hinduism clearly states that one should stand with the truth, should not back down from the truth, and should not be afraid of the truth. Non-violence is what we stand for.“

At the 21:06 mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds, remarking, “This is a very serious matter. Calling the entire Hindu community violent is a serious matter.”

Immediately following this, at the 21:19 mark, Rahul Gandhi responds, “No, No, No, I’m saying this about the BJP, and about you. Modiji is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP is not the entire Hindu community. The RSS is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP does not have this monopoly. Everyone here is a Hindu.”

This part was deliberately removed from the viral video to make it appear that the Congress leader was calling the entire Hindu community violent. It is important to note in the above video that when he says “those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all”, he points towards the BJP MPs seated in the House.

A video of this entire incident was shared on Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram handle as well.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rahul Gandhi (@rahulgandhi)

To sum it up, a clipped video of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech was shared out of context, claiming he had labelled the entire Hindu community as violent.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not call the entire Hindu community violent; BJP leaders are sharing a clipped video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared the video of Rahul Gandhi, stating that opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calling all Hindus violent reflected the Congress party’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus.

Sheer audacity of LoP ⁦@RahulGandhi⁩ to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows ⁦@INCIndia⁩’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed. pic.twitter.com/8ZAXMrRsY8

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) July 1, 2024

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared the video claiming that Congress’s hatred for Hindus had crossed all limits. He wrote that Rahul Gandhi had said in Parliament that those who called themselves Hindus engaged in violence.

Hindu Hatred of Congress crossed all limits ! Yeh Nafrat Ki Dukan hai

Today in Parliament Rahul Gandhi says
“Jo log apne aap ko Hindu kehte hai woh hinsa hinsa hinsa karte hai”

Can this be said about any other community? What would be the result

After Sanatan Samapt, Hindu… pic.twitter.com/ovyTkIjcUu

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 1, 2024

BJP worker Smriti Irani commented, “Some people will never change. To them, I would say – being Hindu is not about position or prestige. We are Hindu by body, mind, thoughts, behaviour, and values.” (Archived link)

कुछ लोग सुधरेंगे नहीं। उनसे कहूँगी – हिंदू ना पद से है, ना प्रतिष्ठा से। हम हिंदू तन, मन, विचार, व्यवहार और संस्कार से हैं।

सनातन का परम सत्य है – हिंदू और हिंसा पर्याय नहीं। pic.twitter.com/peELRHiPfj

— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) July 1, 2024

BJP youth wing BJYM, BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda, other BJP leaders/MPs, and right-wing influencers also shared Rahul Gandhi’s video making similar claims.

Fact Check

Alt News found a longer version of the viral video on Parliament TV. To understand the full context of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, we watched the footage in its entirety. At the 18:01 mark, he is heard saying, “Mr. Modi once said in his speech that India has never attacked anyone, and that is because this country is a country of non-violence, this country is not a country of fear. All of our great leaders talked about non-violence, about eliminating fear. They said, ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’. Lord Shiv says ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’, displays the Abhay Mudra, talks about non-violence, and buries his trident into the ground. While those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all (pointing towards the ruling party MPs). Hinduism clearly states that one should stand with the truth, should not back down from the truth, and should not be afraid of the truth. Non-violence is what we stand for.“

At the 21:06 mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds, remarking, “This is a very serious matter. Calling the entire Hindu community violent is a serious matter.”

Immediately following this, at the 21:19 mark, Rahul Gandhi responds, “No, No, No, I’m saying this about the BJP, and about you. Modiji is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP is not the entire Hindu community. The RSS is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP does not have this monopoly. Everyone here is a Hindu.”

This part was deliberately removed from the viral video to make it appear that the Congress leader was calling the entire Hindu community violent. It is important to note in the above video that when he says “those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all”, he points towards the BJP MPs seated in the House.

A video of this entire incident was shared on Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram handle as well.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rahul Gandhi (@rahulgandhi)

To sum it up, a clipped video of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech was shared out of context, claiming he had labelled the entire Hindu community as violent.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not call the entire Hindu community violent; BJP leaders are sharing a clipped video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared the video of Rahul Gandhi, stating that opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calling all Hindus violent reflected the Congress party’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus.

Sheer audacity of LoP ⁦@RahulGandhi⁩ to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows ⁦@INCIndia⁩’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed. pic.twitter.com/8ZAXMrRsY8

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) July 1, 2024

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared the video claiming that Congress’s hatred for Hindus had crossed all limits. He wrote that Rahul Gandhi had said in Parliament that those who called themselves Hindus engaged in violence.

Hindu Hatred of Congress crossed all limits ! Yeh Nafrat Ki Dukan hai

Today in Parliament Rahul Gandhi says
“Jo log apne aap ko Hindu kehte hai woh hinsa hinsa hinsa karte hai”

Can this be said about any other community? What would be the result

After Sanatan Samapt, Hindu… pic.twitter.com/ovyTkIjcUu

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 1, 2024

BJP worker Smriti Irani commented, “Some people will never change. To them, I would say – being Hindu is not about position or prestige. We are Hindu by body, mind, thoughts, behaviour, and values.” (Archived link)

कुछ लोग सुधरेंगे नहीं। उनसे कहूँगी – हिंदू ना पद से है, ना प्रतिष्ठा से। हम हिंदू तन, मन, विचार, व्यवहार और संस्कार से हैं।

सनातन का परम सत्य है – हिंदू और हिंसा पर्याय नहीं। pic.twitter.com/peELRHiPfj

— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) July 1, 2024

BJP youth wing BJYM, BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda, other BJP leaders/MPs, and right-wing influencers also shared Rahul Gandhi’s video making similar claims.

Fact Check

Alt News found a longer version of the viral video on Parliament TV. To understand the full context of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, we watched the footage in its entirety. At the 18:01 mark, he is heard saying, “Mr. Modi once said in his speech that India has never attacked anyone, and that is because this country is a country of non-violence, this country is not a country of fear. All of our great leaders talked about non-violence, about eliminating fear. They said, ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’. Lord Shiv says ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’, displays the Abhay Mudra, talks about non-violence, and buries his trident into the ground. While those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all (pointing towards the ruling party MPs). Hinduism clearly states that one should stand with the truth, should not back down from the truth, and should not be afraid of the truth. Non-violence is what we stand for.“

At the 21:06 mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds, remarking, “This is a very serious matter. Calling the entire Hindu community violent is a serious matter.”

Immediately following this, at the 21:19 mark, Rahul Gandhi responds, “No, No, No, I’m saying this about the BJP, and about you. Modiji is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP is not the entire Hindu community. The RSS is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP does not have this monopoly. Everyone here is a Hindu.”

This part was deliberately removed from the viral video to make it appear that the Congress leader was calling the entire Hindu community violent. It is important to note in the above video that when he says “those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all”, he points towards the BJP MPs seated in the House.

A video of this entire incident was shared on Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram handle as well.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rahul Gandhi (@rahulgandhi)

To sum it up, a clipped video of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech was shared out of context, claiming he had labelled the entire Hindu community as violent.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not call the entire Hindu community violent; BJP leaders are sharing a clipped video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared the video of Rahul Gandhi, stating that opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calling all Hindus violent reflected the Congress party’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus.

Sheer audacity of LoP ⁦@RahulGandhi⁩ to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows ⁦@INCIndia⁩’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed. pic.twitter.com/8ZAXMrRsY8

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) July 1, 2024

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared the video claiming that Congress’s hatred for Hindus had crossed all limits. He wrote that Rahul Gandhi had said in Parliament that those who called themselves Hindus engaged in violence.

Hindu Hatred of Congress crossed all limits ! Yeh Nafrat Ki Dukan hai

Today in Parliament Rahul Gandhi says
“Jo log apne aap ko Hindu kehte hai woh hinsa hinsa hinsa karte hai”

Can this be said about any other community? What would be the result

After Sanatan Samapt, Hindu… pic.twitter.com/ovyTkIjcUu

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 1, 2024

BJP worker Smriti Irani commented, “Some people will never change. To them, I would say – being Hindu is not about position or prestige. We are Hindu by body, mind, thoughts, behaviour, and values.” (Archived link)

कुछ लोग सुधरेंगे नहीं। उनसे कहूँगी – हिंदू ना पद से है, ना प्रतिष्ठा से। हम हिंदू तन, मन, विचार, व्यवहार और संस्कार से हैं।

सनातन का परम सत्य है – हिंदू और हिंसा पर्याय नहीं। pic.twitter.com/peELRHiPfj

— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) July 1, 2024

BJP youth wing BJYM, BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda, other BJP leaders/MPs, and right-wing influencers also shared Rahul Gandhi’s video making similar claims.

Fact Check

Alt News found a longer version of the viral video on Parliament TV. To understand the full context of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, we watched the footage in its entirety. At the 18:01 mark, he is heard saying, “Mr. Modi once said in his speech that India has never attacked anyone, and that is because this country is a country of non-violence, this country is not a country of fear. All of our great leaders talked about non-violence, about eliminating fear. They said, ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’. Lord Shiv says ‘don’t be afraid and don’t create fear among others’, displays the Abhay Mudra, talks about non-violence, and buries his trident into the ground. While those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all (pointing towards the ruling party MPs). Hinduism clearly states that one should stand with the truth, should not back down from the truth, and should not be afraid of the truth. Non-violence is what we stand for.“

At the 21:06 mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds, remarking, “This is a very serious matter. Calling the entire Hindu community violent is a serious matter.”

Immediately following this, at the 21:19 mark, Rahul Gandhi responds, “No, No, No, I’m saying this about the BJP, and about you. Modiji is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP is not the entire Hindu community. The RSS is not the entire Hindu community. The BJP does not have this monopoly. Everyone here is a Hindu.”

This part was deliberately removed from the viral video to make it appear that the Congress leader was calling the entire Hindu community violent. It is important to note in the above video that when he says “those who call themselves Hindus, they engage in violence, hatred, and lies 24 hours a day. You are not Hindus at all”, he points towards the BJP MPs seated in the House.

A video of this entire incident was shared on Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram handle as well.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rahul Gandhi (@rahulgandhi)

To sum it up, a clipped video of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech was shared out of context, claiming he had labelled the entire Hindu community as violent.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not call the entire Hindu community violent; BJP leaders are sharing a clipped video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

BJP Andhra Pradesh vice-president Vishnu Vardhan Reddy (@SVishnuReddy) tweeted the above-mentioned clip on June 24 with the following caption: “So, Shehzada @RahulGandhi thinks he is bigger than the national anthem of our country. He arrived late and entered the parliament just as the national anthem ended.” The tweet has received over 2.5 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 1,000 times. (Archive)

Alt News has fact-checked misinformation spread and amplified by Vishnu Vardhan Reddy several times before.

So, Shehzada @RahulGandhi thinks he is bigger than the national anthem of our country.

He arrived late and entered the parliament just as the national anthem ended. pic.twitter.com/lpjfzvNbA7

— Vishnu Vardhan Reddy (@SVishnuReddy) June 24, 2024

Several other users on X shared the same clip claiming that Rahul Gandhi reached the Parliament only after the National Anthem was over.

Fact Check

We found the entire video of the beginning of the 18th Parliament session on Sansad TV’s YouTube channel. The National Anthem begins at the 3.07 mark. At the 3.18 mark, INDIA bloc MPs are visible in the frame, and in the back left corner, behind the Sansad TV logo, a man with a similar build to Rahul Gandhi, wearing a white T-shirt and black trousers, can be seen standing. At the 4.13 mark, Rahul Gandhi enters the frame from the right side, the same direction as the position of the man in the last mentioned frame, walking towards the front of the Parliament in a white T-shirt and black trousers, the attire in which he is most often seen.

Below is a comparison of the two frames:

If we see these two frames side by side with a diagram of the Central Hall of the Parliament, it will become clear that Rahul Gandhi was standing at the far left corner from the Speaker’s chair while the National Anthem was being played and then he went forward to take his seat.

If one looks closely, one will find Congress MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi in both the frames, which proves beyond any doubt that the two frames show the same spot.

We came across a tweet by Congress Youth leader Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) who also pointed out that the man in the back of the Parliament during the National Anthem was Rahul Gandhi.

Stop spreading lies!

Rahul ji was present during the National Anthem for the entire duration.

He can be seen standing in the top left corner in the initial seconds of this video and at the end. https://t.co/XejsVuddgZ pic.twitter.com/KLv3iAXWXl

— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) June 24, 2024

Further, we looked for any news reports on Rahul Gandhi’s late arrival to the first session of the new Parliament but couldn’t find any.

Therefore, from the above findings, it can be concluded that Rahul Gandhi was present in the Parliament during the National Anthem.

The post Rahul Gandhi was present during National Anthem; claims of his late arrival to Parliament false appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Right-Wing influencer and BJP supporter Roshan Sinha (@MrSinha_) posted this image, claiming that the picture on the wall was of Jesus.

Similarly, Right-Wing influencer Ajit Datta tweeted this image, stating that it depicted Jesus Christ.

BJP supporter Jitendra Pratap Singh also tweeted the image, calling it a picture of Jesus.

Fact Check

Alt News cropped the relevant part of the viral image and performed a reverse image search on Google. Due to the photo being blurry, we could not find any relevant information. We then uploaded it to the Yandex search engine and found a higher resolution version of the image. Searching this version on Google led us to several related articles.

One of these was on the website “Rethinking The Future“, which contained information about the art gallery of Nicholas Roerich and the viral image. According to the site, the image is titled ‘Madonna Oriflamma’, and it was created by Nicholas Roerich in 1932. The painting depicts a peace banner featuring three red dots inside a circle, which is a symbol of the Roerich Pact. The peace flag is associated with the first international conference dedicated to the protection of artistic, scientific, and historical institutions and monuments.

Investigating further, we checked the website of the Nicholas Roerich Museum. According to information on one of its pages, the devastation of World War I and the Russian Revolution led Roerich to realise that each nation’s cultural heritage was essentially a world treasure. He maintained that besides the physical remains of past cultures, the creative activities associated with universities, libraries, hospitals, concert halls, and theatres should be protected from the ravages of war. Roerich understood the need for an international effort and, with the help of international legal experts, crafted a treaty known as the Roerich Pact. The flag with a red circle and three dots is called the Banner of Peace. This pact stipulates that all sites of cultural value should be declared neutral and protected, similar to how hospitals marked with the Red Cross flag are protected to prevent attacks. The painting seen in the viral image is also seen on this page.

To sum it up, the image in question is not of Jesus Christ but rather a painting by Nicholas Roerich titled “Madonna Oriflamma,” created in 1932. The painting features the “Banner of Peace” with three red dots inside a red circle, symbolising the Roerich Pact.

The post Jesus Christ photo behind Rahul and Sonia Gandhi’s inked selfie? No, false claim by Right Wing appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

His tweet has received over 10 lakh views and has been retweeted over 7,100 times.

The original copy of the Constitution of India has a blue cover .

The original Chinese constitution has a red cover.

Does Rahul carry a Chinese Constitution? We will need to verify. pic.twitter.com/ZVueIOweDA

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (Modi Ka Parivar) (@himantabiswa) May 17, 2024

Several other users including Harsh Chaturvedi BJP (मोदी का परिवार) (@harshcha) who is the BJP Uttar Pradesh’s social media co-convener, further shared the same set of images with the Assam CM’s claim.

Fact Check

We ran a reverse image search on the picture of Rahul Gandhi that was shared by the Assam CM. This led us to a news report by The Morung Express who had also carried the same image. As per the report, the image is from a public meeting held in Nagarkurnool, Telangana, where Rahul Gandhi addressed a prepoll rally. Presenting a copy of the Indian Constitution at the rally, Gandhi claimed that the INDIA bloc was determined to protect the Constitution.

We found the entire 50-minute-long recording of the public meeting on the Indian Express’ YouTube channel, the meeting was held on May 5. In this video, we can find a front angle of the moment at which Rahul Gandhi held up the Constitution to the crowd. At the 29:22 mark of the video, Gandhi can be seen holding up the Constitution. On the cover, one can see “The Constitution of India” clearly written.

In the screengrab below, one can clearly see what is written on the cover of the book that Rahul Gandhi is holding.

Further, we ran a relevant keyword search and found that the Constitution that Gandhi was holding is the Coat Pocket Edition published by Eastern Book Company (@ebcindia). Images of this edition of the Indian Constitution can be found on EBC’s official X page and on its website.

As a matter of fact, several BJP leaders have been seen with the coat pocket edition of the Indian Constitution. We also found photos of former President of India Ram Nath Kovind holding the edition.

While the cover of the original copy of the Constitution of India was blue, several editions of the Constitution have since been published with various cover designs.

Hence, the suggestion by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi might be holding the Chinese Constitution is false. Gandhi was holding the Coat Pocket Edition of the Indian Constitution published by Eastern Book Company.

The post Fact check: Rahul Gandhi is holding the Indian Constitution in image shared by Himanta Biswa Sarma appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

BJP Uttar Pradesh youth wing social media head Richa Rajpoot shared the video, claiming that those using Instagram and Facebook would be made millionaires by emptying the pockets of wealth creators.

इंस्टाग्राम चलाओ फेसबुक चलाओ
और 10-10 बच्चे पैदा करो कांग्रेस आएगी तो मिडिल क्लास और वेल्थ क्रिएटर्स की जेब से निकाल के सबको लखपति बनाएंगे pic.twitter.com/rvUu4USgxI

— Dr. Richa Rajpoot (Modi ka Parivar) (@doctorrichabjp) April 21, 2024

‘Megh Updates‘, an X handle that has been found sharing misinformation several times in the past, amplified the clip, claiming that youth doing the tedious work of browsing Instagram and Facebook would automatically receive Rs. 8,500 into their bank accounts every month.

Right-Wing propaganda account ‘The Hawk Eye‘ also posted the video of Rahul Gandhi, stating that youths watching Facebook and Instagram reels would be given a sum of Rs. 1 lakh.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of a frame taken from the viral video. This led us to a longer version of this video uploaded on Rahul Gandhi’s YouTube channel on April 20. According to the title, this video is from the party’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections campaign in Bhagalpur, Bihar.

At the 10:58 mark of this video, the Congress leader states, “Our second scheme is called ‘Guaranteed First Job.’ Now let me explain what ‘Guaranteed First Job’ means. It means we are going to give all the graduates and diploma holders of India the right to entrepreneurship. Applaud a little more, and I’ll explain it to you. The right to entrepreneurship means that every youth of India will be given the right to the first job by our next government. Just as we gave the right to employment in MGNREGA, similarly, we will give the graduates the right to their first job. The right to the first job means that all the graduates of India and diploma holders will get a one-year entrepreneurship opportunity for a sum of Rs. 1 lakh per year, or Rs. 8,500 per month, into their bank accounts. They will be trained, and if they perform well in the first year, they will be given a permanent job. These jobs related to entrepreneurship will be in the private sector, in public sector units, as well as in the government. So millions of youths will be trained, and India will get a trained workforce. And the youth who are wandering on the streets today, browsing Instagram and Facebook, will receive Rs. 1 lakh annually, Rs. 8,500 per month, and a promise from our government.”

The last sentence of the above-mentioned part of Gandhi’s speech was shared without context, giving the false impression that Rahul Gandhi promised to deposit Rs. 1 lakh annually or Rs. 8,500 monthly into the bank accounts of youths sitting idle and browsing Facebook and Instagram. Whereas, in reality, the politician was talking about providing a one-year entrepreneurship opportunity to all graduates and diploma holders.

To sum it up, during the election campaign in Bhagalpur, Bihar, Rahul Gandhi spoke about providing a one-year entrepreneurship opportunity to all graduates and diploma holders. Several BJP leaders and Right-Wing influencers shared a clipped version of this speech without context, claiming that he promised to deposit Rs. 1 lakh annually or Rs. 8,500 monthly into the bank accounts of youths sitting idle and browsing Facebook and Instagram.

The post Did Rahul Gandhi promise Rs 1 Lakh to youth browsing through Facebook, Instagram? Clipped video viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

केरल के वायनाड में राहुल गांधी और प्रियंका वाड्राइन ने चार साल पहले हिंदुओं के बड़े मंदिर श्रीसीताराम मंदिर पर मुसलमानों का कब्जा रजिस्टर्ड करा दिया था
अब तो कांग्रेसी ब्राह्मण क्षत्रिय बहुत खुश हो चुके होंगे
सब लोग भाजपा को ही वोट दें @INCIndia @SupriyaShrinate pic.twitter.com/67AD0aftWI

— Swami Ramsarnacharya Pandey, मेलकोटे पीठाधीश्वर (@SwamiRamsarnac4) April 30, 2024

Another user named Rajesh Sharma also promoted the video with a similar claim.

Fact Check

In order to find out more about the viral video, we performed a keyword search on Google. This led us to a video uploaded on August 25, 2023, on the YouTube channel “Makhan Ram Jaipal Vlogs“. The video contained footage from inside and outside the temple building. The vlogger stated that the temple was located in Ahmadpur Sial in the Jhang district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. However, following the partition of India and Pakistan, the temple fell into disuse and its roof was on the verge of collapsing. According to the information provided in the video, several shops have now been opened inside this temple building, including one that sells meat.

According to the 2017 Census of Pakistan, there are no Hindus living in Ahmadpur Sial in Jhang district.

Another search on YouTube led us to a  second video related to this temple uploaded on January 5, 2023, on the channel “History place“. It confirmed that this temple is indeed located in Ahmadpur Sial, Pakistan.

We also found the featured location on Google Maps, which included an image of the dilapidated temple.

To sum it up, the video in question is not from Wayanad, Kerala, but from Ahmadpur Sial, Pakistan, and it has no connection to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Several BJP supporters falsely claimed that the footage was from Wayanad where local MP Rahul Gandhi had allowed Muslims to occupy a Hindu temple and set up a meat shop.

The post Chicken shop on temple premises: Video from Pakistan peddled as Wayanad; Rahul Gandhi falsely targeted appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

केरल के वायनाड में राहुल गांधी और प्रियंका वाड्राइन ने चार साल पहले हिंदुओं के बड़े मंदिर श्रीसीताराम मंदिर पर मुसलमानों का कब्जा रजिस्टर्ड करा दिया था
अब तो कांग्रेसी ब्राह्मण क्षत्रिय बहुत खुश हो चुके होंगे
सब लोग भाजपा को ही वोट दें @INCIndia @SupriyaShrinate pic.twitter.com/67AD0aftWI

— Swami Ramsarnacharya Pandey, मेलकोटे पीठाधीश्वर (@SwamiRamsarnac4) April 30, 2024

Another user named Rajesh Sharma also promoted the video with a similar claim.

Fact Check

In order to find out more about the viral video, we performed a keyword search on Google. This led us to a video uploaded on August 25, 2023, on the YouTube channel “Makhan Ram Jaipal Vlogs“. The video contained footage from inside and outside the temple building. The vlogger stated that the temple was located in Ahmadpur Sial in the Jhang district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. However, following the partition of India and Pakistan, the temple fell into disuse and its roof was on the verge of collapsing. According to the information provided in the video, several shops have now been opened inside this temple building, including one that sells meat.

According to the 2017 Census of Pakistan, there are no Hindus living in Ahmadpur Sial in Jhang district.

Another search on YouTube led us to a  second video related to this temple uploaded on January 5, 2023, on the channel “History place“. It confirmed that this temple is indeed located in Ahmadpur Sial, Pakistan.

We also found the featured location on Google Maps, which included an image of the dilapidated temple.

To sum it up, the video in question is not from Wayanad, Kerala, but from Ahmadpur Sial, Pakistan, and it has no connection to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Several BJP supporters falsely claimed that the footage was from Wayanad where local MP Rahul Gandhi had allowed Muslims to occupy a Hindu temple and set up a meat shop.

The post Chicken shop on temple premises: Video from Pakistan peddled as Wayanad; Rahul Gandhi falsely targeted appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

An X (formerly Twitter), @Mahaveer_VJ shared the video with the caption, ”Pappu became Brahmin again after filing nominations today and went to Ayodhya! People welcomed him with Jai Sree Ram and Modi Modi chants…’ The tweet has received over 21,100 views.

Pappu became Brahmin again after filing nominations today and went to Ayodhya!
People welcomed him with Jai Sree Ram and Modi Modi chants… pic.twitter.com/exSpYs2jlr

— महावीर जैन, ಮಹಾವೀರ ಜೈನ್, Mahaveer Jain (@Mahaveer_VJ) May 4, 2024

A user named Gaurav Dhiman, who identifies himself on Facebook as “BJP IT Cell District Convenor 2023-Present” also shared the video on Instagram and Facebook with the same caption.

The claim was amplified on X and Facebook by several users.

Fact Check

We broke down the viral video into key-frames using Invid software and then reverse-searched one of the images on Google. This led us to a video posted by BJP leader Nishikant Dubey on February 3, 2024. Dubey posted the video stating, “Against the politics of Muslim appeasement, my Godda Lok Sabha is permeated with Prime Minister Modi. Here the devotees respect Modi ji, like you, Rahul Gandhi ji, the vote of the devotee is a boycott, not an insult.”

मुस्लिम तुष्टिकरण की राजनीति के खिलाफ मेरा गोड्डा लोकसभा केवल प्रधानमंत्री मय यानि मोदी मय है। यहाँ भक्त मोदी जी का सम्मान है,आपकी तरह राहुल गांधी जी वोट भक्त का बहिष्कार है अपमान नहीं pic.twitter.com/UBd75Va91i

— Dr Nishikant Dubey(Modi Ka Parivar) (@nishikant_dubey) February 3, 2024

Godda is a district town in the state of Jharkhand. It is represented in the Lok Sabha by BJP leader Nishikant Dubey. He is also the BJP’s candidate from the seat this time.

This tells us that the video is not a recent one. It is at least as old as February 2024.

We performed a keyword search on YouTube to find more context. This led us to a Republic World video report  titled ‘Watch: Rahul Gandhi Embarrassed Again, Greeted With Modi-Modi Chants At Baba Baidyanath Dham’ which was uploaded on February 3, 2024.

Deoghar is one of the six assembly constituencies under Godda LS seat.

The video description states, “In an embarrassing moment for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, he was greeted with chants of Modi-Modi at the Baba Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand’s Deoghar during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.”

According to a Times of India report titled, “Crowd raises ‘Modi, Modi’ chants as Rahul Gandhi visits Baba Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand”, Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra reached Jharkhand on February 2. The report stated, “Dressed in pink dhoti and sandalwood powdered forehead, Rahul Gandhi offered prayers at Baba Baidyanath Dham on Feb 3. As soon as Rahul Gandhi entered the famous jyotirlinga in Jharkhand’s Deoghar, loud sloganeering began. Public in large numbers raised ‘Rahul Gandhi Zindabad’ slogans, but suddenly it turned into ‘Modi-Modi’ chants. ”

To sum up, social media users have falsely claimed that a crowd chanting ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and ‘Modi Modi’ while Rahul Gandhi was coming out of a temple is a recent incident in Ayodhya, after he had filed his nomination for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Our fact check revealed that the video was from February 3, 2024, when Gandhi had visited Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand, during his Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra march.

The post Old video from Jharkhand peddled as Rahul Gandhi heckled with ‘Modi’ slogans in Ayodhya appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abira Das.

25.50-minute onward in the speech, Modi stated, “You may have noticed, for the last five years, the Shehzada of Congress has been harping on the same string every morning as soon as he gets up. Ever since the Rafale case was grounded, he started harping on it. For five years, he has been harping on it. Five industrialists, five industrialists, five industrialists… Then slowly, he started saying Ambani-Adani, Ambani-Adani, Ambani-Adani, for five years. But ever since the elections were declared, he stopped abusing Ambani-Adani. Today, from Telangana, I want to ask him.. the Shehzada should announce how much money (maal) he has taken from Ambani-Adani. How many sacks of black money have gone to him? Have they sent tempos filled with notes to Congress? What deal have they struck? You have stopped abusing Ambani-Adani overnight. There must be something fishy. For five years, he abused Ambani-Adani, and overnight the abuses stopped! That means you have received looted amounts (chori ka maal) filled in trucks. You have to answer the nation.”

A part of the statement was also highlighted on Prime Minister Modi’s official website.

Fact Check

A simple key word search with date filter reveals that Rahul Gandhi has attacked the BJP and Narendra Modi’s associations with the two industrialists, Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, several times in his campaign speeches in the recent past. Here are a few instances:

May 7, Konbir, Jharkhand

Rahul Gandhi delivered a speech at the NHPC Ground in Jharkhand’s Konbir in Lohardaga Lok Sabha area in support of Congress candidates Kalicharan Munda (Khunti) and Sukhdeo Bhagat (Lohardaga), where he alleged that the BJP wanted to hand over forest land of the tribal people to Ambani and Adani.

10-minute onward in the above video, Gandhi states, “BJP says you are forest dwellers (vanvasi) and they would give the entire forest to Adani. 24 hours a day, they keep handing over forest land to Adani… Whatever they do, they do it for the billionaires. They have 22-25 friends like Adani, Ambani. All the work are done for them. Land for them, forest for them, media for them, infrastructure for them, roads for them, bridges for them, petrol for them, everything for them. Earlier, there used to be public sector where tribals, Dalits, backward classes had their reservation. Everything is now being privatized… the public sector is your asset… roads, railways are your assets, not Adani’s. Everything is being handed over to them. You tell me, these mediapersons who are standing here.. do they talk about you? They will never do that. They are not yours. They work for the billionaires. They work for them. They will show the Ambanis’ wedding for 24 hours. But even if a tribal dies, if he is killed, if he begs with folded hands, he will not be shown by the media.”

May 6, Khargone, Madhya Pradesh

The Congress leader addressed a public rally at Segaon in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh in support of party candidate Porlal Kharte.

At the 13.47-minute mark in the above video, Gandhi states, “If the Constitution is abolished, all your rights will come to an end… water bodies, forests, land (jal-jangal-zameen), reservation, public sector, everything will vanish. And Hindustan will be ruled by 22-25 people. Who are these people? They are the billionaires of Hindustan. People like Adani, whose eyes are fixed on your land, your forests, your water bodies. They want these to be snatched from you and handed over to them. They are special friends of Narendra Modi ji. Have you heard the name Adani? Have you? The Prime Minister wants to give away your land, forests, water bodies to Adani. Airports, power stations, ports, infrastructure, everything has been given to these 22-25 people by Narendra Modi ji… he has waived off loans amounting to Rs 16 Lakh Crore of these 22-25 people.”

Again, 22.03-minute onward, he states, “Steps like introduction of GST and demonitaztion were taken to help billionaires. Narendra Modi wanted to help people like Adani and hence he brought in faulty GST, demonetization… ”

May 5, Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh

Rahul Gandhi spoke at a public meeting in support of Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria in Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency of Madhya Pradesh, where he made the same allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the mainstream media. He stated, “Brothers and sisters, you must have noticed that the media persons never talk about tribals. Isn’t that  right? They will show Ambanis’ wedding, the Bollywood, dancing and singing, but there are atrocities on tribals, your children are raped, your land is snatched away, then nothing is ever said about you in the media.”

Lashing out at PM Modi for his alleged favouritism to billionaires, Gandhi also stated, “Narendra Modi has waived off loans worth Lakhs of crores of 22 people. He has given money to billionaires. We have made up our mind that if he can give money to them, we can give money to tribals, dalits, backward classes, the poor from the general caste.”

The speech document can be found here in text format.

He repeated the allegations in another speech on the same day at an election rally at Nagakurnool in Telangana and while addressing the youth on May 4 in Delhi. In both the places, Gandhi mentioned the name of the Adani Group chairman.

May 3, Pune, Maharashtra

Gandhi spoke at a public rally campaigning for the Congress Pune Lok Sabha candidate Ravindra Dhangekar. Pointing out the absence of tribals and backward classes in corporate media houses, he stated, “Look at the names of big media companies, look at the names of their owners, look at the names of big anchors, look at the names of big journalists, you will not see a single person from the backward classes, not a dalit, not a tribal. That’s why they never talk about farmers, about labourers, about unemployement. They show Ambanis’ wedding to you. In that, they show you someone wearing a watch worth ten crores, someone is wearing clothes worth two crores, they show that. But the farmers are hungry, there is no water in the fields, price-rise is increasing, they will never show these things, they are not yours. They are not yours, they belong to Adani.”

A text document of the speech can be found here. 

This shows that contrary to the ‘sudden silence’ statement by Prime Minister Modi on May 8, Rahul Gandhi attacked billionaire businessmen Ambani and Adani in his speeches on each of the five days before Modi made the claim, i.e., on May 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7th. 

Prior to that, on April 30, Rahul Gandhi had shared a video on X (Twitter) where he made arguably the most scathing attack against the billionaire duo’s alleged links with PM Modi. In the clip captioned “I am yours, he is theirs. Understand the difference,” Gandhi says, “Have you seen Narendra Modiji’s photo with Ambani and Adani? But have you heard the word ‘Ambani’ or ‘Adani’ on Narendra Modi’s lips? Have you seen my photo with them? But I utter the words ‘Adani’, ‘Ambani’. Understand the difference. I am yours, he is theirs.”

A similar clip, which talks about PM Modi’s close association with Gautam Adani, was shared by the official X handle of Congress on May 6 with the same caption. And a couple of days later, PM Modi named Ambani and Adani in his speech and alleged that they were sending black money loaded in tempo to Congress.

मैं आपका हूं, वो उनके हैं.

फर्क समझो pic.twitter.com/i9mU4b6YYM

— Congress (@INCIndia) May 6, 2024

If PM Modi’s ‘sudden silence’ remarks and his allegations against Ambani and Adani of involvement with black money are seen as a response to this video, it marks a significant moment in the campaign discourse where Prime Minister Modi is responding to a narrative set by Congress.

Conduct a CBI-ED inquiry: Rahul Gandhi Retorts

Rahul Gandhi responded to Modi’s charge through a video statement uploaded on X on the same day Modi spoke in Karimnagar. In the 42-second clip, he dared Prime Minister Modi to conduct a CBI or ED probe into businessmen Adani and Ambani to find out if they had been sending black money to Congress. He also wondered if Modi was speaking from his “personal experience” when he said they sent their money “loaded in a tempo”.

भाजपा के भ्रष्टाचार के टेम्पो का ‘ड्राइवर’ और ‘खलासी’ कौन है, देश जानता है। pic.twitter.com/62N5IkhHWk

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 8, 2024

The official X handle of Congress, too, shared a video compiling short clips of Rahul Ganshi’s recent mentions of the billionaire businessmen in recent speeches.

Alt News has written to the Reliance Industries Limited and the Adani Group seeking their response to allegations of Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani’s involvement in black money by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This story will be updated as and when we receive a response from them.

The post Ambani & Adani regular targets in Rahul Gandhi’s campaign speeches; Modi’s ‘sudden silence’ claim baseless appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.

In the clip, Rahul Gandhi is purportedly heard saying, “Desh ke X-Ray kar denge, doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega. Minorities ko pata lag jayega ki desh mein unki bhaagidari kitni hai. Iske baad hum financial aur institutional survey karenge, yeh pata lagayenge ki kiske haaton mein hai, kaunse varg ke haat mein hai. Aur is aitihasik kadam ke baad hum krantikaari kaam shuru karenge..(Translation: We will X-ray the country, everything will be crystal clear. Minorities will know their true representation in the country. After this, we will conduct financial and institutional surveys to determine who holds what, and which class has control. After this historic step, we will start transformative work…)

BJP MP Giriraj Singh tweeted the video and remarked that Rahul Gandhi was openly talking about ‘snatching away’ the rights and property of the Hindus.

ये सज्जन खुलेआम हिंदुओं के अधिकार और संपत्ति छीनने की बात कर रहे हैं।
यह बहुत डरावनी मानसिकता है। pic.twitter.com/Ds1mQQzUdc

— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (मोदी का परिवार) (@girirajsinghbjp) April 23, 2024

Right Wing troll Ajeet Bharti also made a similar claim while tweeting the 42-second video and sarcastically asked, “How can someone be so stupid?”

इसे नरेन्द्र मोदी का वीडियो नहीं मिला क्या? कोई इतना मूर्ख कैसे हो सकता है? pic.twitter.com/F8JCEHROvk

— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) April 23, 2024

Verified user Arun Pudur  also tweeted the viral clip with the same claim that Rahul Gandhi had promised favours to minorities, insinuating Muslims.

Don’t Miss This Bone Chilling Video

We will do a nationwide”X-Ray”, we will then know how much is owed to ‘Minorities’.

Then we will do ‘Survey’ of Individuals Financials and Institutions.

We will find who has the ‘Wealth’ and to which Caste they belong.

After all this… pic.twitter.com/wUr1FDjk7k

— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) April 23, 2024

The same video was amplified by Right Wing influencer Rishi Bagree as well.

Step 1 – Do a nationwide”X-Ray”
Step 2- Analyse how much is owed to ‘Minorities’
Step 3 – Do ‘Survey’ of Individuals
Step 4 – Find who has the ‘Wealth’
Step 5 – Analyse their caste
Step 6 – Do Re-distribution of wealth

Every Vote to Congress is signing your own death warrant pic.twitter.com/aOitCpa5MY

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) April 23, 2024

‘Journalist’ Abhijit Majumder shared the clip and remarked that Gandhi wasn’t ‘hiding his Hinduphobia and Marxist-Islamist ideas anymore’ and further claimed that he delivered and openly communal speech.

“Desh ka X-Ray kar dengey. Minorities ko pata chal jayega unki bhagidari kitni hai.”
~ Rahul Gandhi is not hiding his Hinduphobia and Marxist-Islamist ideas anymore.
Just listen to this openly communal speech.#WealthRedistributionPlan pic.twitter.com/FGsLY8yXZN

— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) April 23, 2024

Fact Check

Upon a reverse image search on a key frame from the viral video, we found that the viral clip had been taken from the event of the Congress Manifesto launch in Hyderabad. We located the viral bit at the 31:54 minute mark and found that the video had been edited. Rahul Gandhi had actually spoken about the representation of Dalits, Tribals, OBCs, and poor people while also mentioning minority communities. Only the part where he mentions ‘minorities’ has been kept in the viral clip. Below is a translation of what Gandhi said:

“We will X-ray the country, everything will be crystal clear. The Backward Classes, Dalits, tribals, poor general caste people and minorities will know how much their share in this country is. After this, we will conduct a financial and institutional survey to determine who holds what, and which class has control. After this historic step, we will start transformative work, we will work to give you what is your right.”

The words in bold in the above statement have been edited out in the viral video.

Thus, it is clear that Rahul Gandhi didn’t exclusively mention the minority community when he discussed conducting surveys and ensuring rights. His remarks encompassed backward classes, Dalits, tribals, economically disadvantaged general caste individuals, as well as minorities. However, the video of his statement was edited and manipulated, removing references to other classes and leaving only the mention of minorities.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not talk about rights of minorities exclusively; video of his speech shared by Right Wing is edited appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Congress’s road show, just see the ocean of green flags.

No wonder their manifesto had everything about how to make India an IsIamic country…. pic.twitter.com/KtxzKcMnMe

— Mr Sinha (Modi’s family) (@MrSinha_) April 9, 2024

The verified Twitter handle for Kreately, a portal indulging in propaganda, hate and misinformation, and promoted by BJP leader Kapil Mishra, also tweeted some videos along with the viral image, claiming that they were shot at the recent Congress roadshow. (Archive)

Welcome to Wayanad in Kerala pic.twitter.com/nNELVIRn7K

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) April 9, 2024

Verified user @AjiHaaan also tweeted the image and sarcastically commented, “And then they say, look, BJP people are calling us Muslim Leaguers…look at the flags.” (Archive)

और फिर कहते हैं कि देखो भाजपा वाले हमें मुस्लिम लीगी कह रहे हैं…झंडे देखिये. pic.twitter.com/LJiHPBpiow

— AjiHaan (@AjiHaaan) April 9, 2024

Several other users also amplified the viral image claiming that it was clicked at the April 3 roadshow in Wayanad. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Image is From 2019

A reverse image search on the viral picture led us to a report by The New Indian Express from April 2019 which contained the same image. The image description indicated that the image was clicked during a similar roadshow in 2019 after Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers in Wayanad for the Lok Sabha elections that year. In the photo, Gandhi can be seen alongside his sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra greeting party workers during the roadshow at Kalpetta.

It is worth noting that at the time there was a controversy regarding the green flags seen during the rally, with social media users claiming that the roadshow witnessed ‘Pakistani flags’ and ‘Islamic flags’ being waved. An Alt News fact-check DEBUNKED these claims and conclusively established that the flags seen in the image represent the Indian Union Muslim League, which is one of the six parties in the UDF alliance, which includes Congress.

For instance, on the IUML banner, the crescent star and the moon are placed at the top-left corner whereas the same is placed in the middle in the generic religious banner often used in the subcontinent as well as the Pakistani flag. Moreover, the Pakistani flag has a white band on the left side. Below is a comparison among the three.

The official handle of the Indian National Congress also tweeted images from the roadshow in Wayanad on April 3, 2024. One can notice the stark differences if one compares the 2019 image with the 2024 image.

जननायक pic.twitter.com/4fOnqiACxw

— Congress (@INCIndia) April 3, 2024

One of the differences between the 2019 roadshow and the 2024 roadshow is the absence of IUML flags in the latter. In fact, this became a talking point in the state’s political quarters and beyond. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan asked whether Congress ‘feared’ the BJP following the controversy regarding the green flags in 2019. On the other hand, BJP leader Smriti Irani stated that the lack of Muslim League flags at the roadshow meant that either Rahul Gandhi was ashamed of getting support from the Muslim League or when he visits temples in North India, he would not be able to hide his association with the organisation. The Union minister had flown to Wayanad for the nomination of the BJP candidate K Surendran.

Misinformation by Kreately

Moreover, it should be noted that the entire collection of photos and videos shared by Kreately in the context of the 2024 Wayanad roadshow is old.

Welcome to Wayanad in Kerala pic.twitter.com/nNELVIRn7K

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) April 9, 2024

The first video in the tweet can be traced back to a YouTube video dated June 10, 2019. Here too, IUML flags are being waved, with the crescent moon and star at the top left corner.

The second video is also from 2019 and a key frame from this video was used in the 2019 Alt News fact-check to establish that the flags indeed belonged to the IUML. The vehicle carrying Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi can also be seen moving in the background.

The third image was clicked during the 2019 roadshow in Wayanad. The image belongs to the Press Trust of India and shows IUML supporters, with green flags, joining supporters of Congress as they waved flags before the filing of nomination papers Rahul Gandhi in 2019.

Hence, an image from the 2019 Congress roadshow held after Rahul Gandhi had filed his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections that year is viral in 2024. Social media users pointed out that green flags were seen in the image and made communal insinuations. Rahul Gandhi did hold a roadshow this year in Wayanad on the day of filing his nomination, but there was hardly any IUML flag visible. This was pointed out by both the Left and the Right.

The post Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad: Photo of 2019 Congress rally with green flags of IUML falsely viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

One of the videos is of Rahul Gandhi at an I.N.D.I.A alliance event in Maharashtra, where others present on the stage can be seen garlanding him with one of them holding an idol of the Hindu deity Vitthala. (Video I)

In the other, a seven-second clip from the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, Rahul Gandhi can be heard saying, “ये वाला डंडा देना, झंडा उतर दो इससे” (Translation: “Remove the flag and give me the stick”). Following this, some people in the crowd remove the national flag from the stick. (Video II)

Video I:

Malviya (@amitmalviya) shared the viral clip on X on March 14 with the caption, “Rahul Gandhi refuses to accept idol of Bhagwan Vitthal on stage. This is an insult of not just the Warkaris but millions of Hindu devotees, who revere the Lord. From DMK to the Congress, Hindu hate is what binds the I.N.D.I Alliance. Rahul Gandhi suffers from Hindumisia.” The tweet received 370,600 views, 7,700 likes and 4,000 retweets. (Archive)

Rahul Gandhi refuses to accept idol of Bhagwan Vitthal on stage. This is an insult of not just the Warkaris but millions of Hindu devotees, who revere the Lord.
From DMK to the Congress, Hindu hate is what binds the I.N.D.I Alliance.
Rahul Gandhi suffers from Hindumisia. pic.twitter.com/ONLXxD9Pal

— Amit Malviya (मोदी का परिवार) (@amitmalviya) March 14, 2024

The official page of BJP Maharashtra (@BJP4Maharashtra) also shared the video claiming that Gandhi insulted the Hindu God by not agreeing to hold the idol. (Archive)

Republic Bharat also amplified Malviya’s claim in a report titled, ‘Rahul Gandhi again insulted Sanatan, refused to take the idol of Lord Vitthal, BJP alleged’.

Fact Check

After running a keyword search on X, we came across the extended version of the viral clip which was posted by @INCMaharashtra on social media. The 0:18 mark of the extended version of the clip depicts Rahul Gandhi accepting the idol.

धरीला पंढरीचा चोर | गळा बांधुनिया दोर ||
हृदय बंदिखाना केला | आंत विठ्ठल कोंडीला
शब्दे केली जडाजुडी | विठ्ठल पायी घातली बेडी
सोहम शब्दाचा मारा केला | विठ्ठल काकुळती आला

आम्ही रामाचे पुजारी, हे तर रामाचे व्यापारी… ही संत जनाबाई ह्यांच्या अभंगाची ओळ या भाजपावाल्यांसाठी… https://t.co/nAKX6XNXT2 pic.twitter.com/cSN5XLmUfu

— Maharashtra Congress (@INCMaharashtra) March 14, 2024

We noticed that the official YouTube channel of Congress also posted an extended video titled, ‘Farmers Meeting l Nashik I Maharashtra I Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ on March 14, 2024. At the 17:28 mark of the video, Gandhi can be seen accepting the idol of Lord Vitthala on stage. He accepted the idol during ‘Krushi Utpanna Bazaar Samiti‘ in Nashik, Maharashtra. Other political leaders including, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders were also present at the farmers’ meet.

Hence, it is clear that Amit Malviya and others shared a clipped video of the event and made the false claim that Rahul Gandhi had refused to accept an idol of the Hindu deity Vitthala.

Video II:

Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) shared this clip on X on March 13 with the caption, “Rahul Gandhi asks India’s flag to be taken down…This is straight out of George Soros’s rule book, where he asks his protégée to insult and demean everything Indian.” Malviya suggested that the opposition leader works at the behest of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, where the latter has previously criticised PM Modi and his connection with Gautam Adani. Malviya’s tweet received over 129,700 views, 5,600 likes and 2,700 retweets. He has also disseminated misleading claims and misinformation in the past. (Archive)

Rahul Gandhi asks India’s flag to be taken down…
This is straight out of George Soros’s rule book, where he asks his protégée to insult and demean everything Indian. pic.twitter.com/wDYAiDCQCY

— Amit Malviya (मोदी का परिवार) (@amitmalviya) March 13, 2024

A YouTube channel called Indian Compass posted the viral clip, titled ‘This Is The Respect Rahul Gandhi Has For The National Flag‘. The video has received over 57,233 views.

Among others who made the same claim @iAnkurSingh and vice-president of BJP Delhi Visshnu Mittal (@visshnumittal).

Fact Check

We broke down the viral video using Invid software and reverse-searched one of the key frames on Google. This led us to a video titled, ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra resumes from Dondaicha, Maharashtra‘ that was posted by the Congress’ official YouTube channel on March 13, 2024.

At the 9:58 mark, Rahul Gandhi asks a man in the crowd named Santosh Patil to come and sit beside him. Following this, Gandhi tries to dramatically demonstrate how, according to him, the Modi government allegedly distracted the public’s attention from important national issues thereby helping Indian billionaire Gautam Adani to rob common people. He says, “इसका ध्यान पहले इधर उधर करेगा। कौन करेगा? नरेंद्र मोदी करेगा, उसके बाद पीछेसे अडानी आएगा और जेब कटेगा।”

The viral clip was taken from the 11:11 mark of the extended video, where Rahul Gandhi asks for a stick to symbolically demonstrate how the BJP government allegedly misuses central agencies like ED, CBI and the Income Tax Department. Gandhi says, “अच्छा मुझे ये डंडा देना, झंडा उतरदो इससे… ये देदो छोटा वाला (डंडा) देदो..तोह मोदी ध्यान इधर उधर करेगा, right? अडानी पीछे से जेब कटेगा और अमित शाह यु डंडा पकड़के ED, CBI, Income Tax Department लेके मारेगा। किसको मारेगा? इसको (जनताको ) मरेगा।”

We noticed that Rahul Gandhi used similar dramatic demonstrations using a stick in his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra rally in Vyara Gujarat on March 13, 2024. At the 16:01 mark of the video titled, ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra I Vyara Gujarat’, Rahul Gandhi tells the crowd to remove the (Congress) flag and give him the stick. He goes on to demonstrate how the Modi government is allegedly misusing central agencies and distracting the public from more poignant socio-economic issues.

Hence, the claim that Rahul Gandhi wanted an Indian flag taken down is entirely false. He needed a stick and asked someone present in the rally to hand him over a stick by removing the Indian flag. The clipped video that Amit Malviya shared does not present the whole context.

Abira Das is an intern at Alt News.

The post Amit Malviya shares two clipped videos of Rahul Gandhi on subsequent days with false claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abira Das.

Sada Afreen, a Twitter user who claims to be a journalist, shared the screenshot and wrote in Hindi, “Have something to say on Virat Kohli’s Instagram status?” (Archive)

कुछ कहना है विराट कोहली के इंस्टाग्राम स्टेटस पर?#KarnatakaElectionResults pic.twitter.com/ryTc18dAUq

— Sadaf Afreen صدف (@s_afreen7) May 13, 2023

A parody account that goes by the display name ‘Dr Nimo Yadav’ shared the screenshot as well, and wrote, “Virat Kohli is on , hope he doesn’t delete it “. (Archive)

Virat Kohli is on , hope he doesn’t delete it

#KarnatakaElectionResults2023 pic.twitter.com/qf6C3w36GH

— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) May 13, 2023

Another Twitter user called Dr Gill shared a similar screenshot. (Archive)

#KarnatakaElectionResults

Virat Kohli’s insta story today pic.twitter.com/vMwoNGdYkT

— Dr Gill (@ikpsgill1) May 13, 2023

Fact Check

We first started by checking the Instagram account of Virat Kohli. We noticed that the username and the profile picture matched the viral screenshots. However, in the past 24 hours, Virat has only posted two Instagram stories.

It is very much possible for an Instagram user to post and then delete a story, but the viral screenshots appear to be manipulated. In the first viral screenshot, we noticed two things:

1. Virat has 248 million Instagram followers. However, only one screenshot taken 17 minutes after the story being posted is viral on social media.
2. The letter “L” (in lower case) in the username has a specific font style that can be seen on all the screenshots shared and the verification checkmark appears to be not aligned properly.

Below, we have compared the username and the verification mark on the viral screenshot and an actual screenshot taken by us.

In the case of the second viral screenshot, though the username and the verification checkmark appear aligned, it seems that the photo of Rahul Gandhi has been superimposed on something else. When one takes a closer look at it, one can see that Rahul Gandhi’s photo has been placed on a photo of Indian cricketer Suryakumar Yadav, which can be still seen on Kohli’s Instagram story. A part of Kumar’s blue jersey is still visible below the Congress leader’s photo.

To sum it up, it is clear that two manipulated screenshots of Virat Kohli’s Instagram stories are being shared on social media to claim that the cricketer had praised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the likely victory in Karnataka assembly elections.

The post Fact check: Viral Instagram story of Virat Kohli praising Rahul Gandhi is fake appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

The in-charge of the BJP’s IT department, Amit Malviya, posted the 9-second clip on Twitter and took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi by calling him “insensitive”. The post has received over 371.3K views, 250 retweets and over 800 likes. (Archive)

Insensitivity is writ large all over… pic.twitter.com/EPfs0qEFmp

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) April 12, 2023

State general  secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha in Andhra Pradesh Mitta Vamsi Krishna also shared the video, writing “Heights of being senseless! @RahulGandhi trying to handshake with a divyang person?” (Archive)

Heights of being senseless! @RahulGandhi trying to handshake with a divyang person? pic.twitter.com/phJl3OKcy6

— Mitta Vamsi Krishna (@MittaVamsiBJP) April 11, 2023

Another user, @erbmjha, who is followed by PM Narendra Modi on Twitter, also shared the clip with a similar claim, stating “This guy is the most problematically dimwitted person I’ve ever seen. Rahul Gandhi tried shaking hand with physically disabled person on the wheelchair without an arm… unbelievable!” The tweet garnered over 2,000 retweets, 7,000 likes and over 824K views. (Archive)

This guy is the most problematically dimwitted person I’ve ever seen.

Rahul Gandhi tried shaking hand with physically disabled person on the wheelchair without an arm… unbelievable!
pic.twitter.com/lL30mCAaPz

— BALA (@erbmjha) April 11, 2023

Twitter user, @Humor_Silly also shared the video with the caption, “Rahul Gandhi trying to shake hands with an “armless” person? Is he for real?” The post has over 200 retweets and 600 likes. (Archive)

Rahul Gandhi trying to shake hands with an “armless” person?

Is he for real? pic.twitter.com/XCpH8lukYP

— Hardik (@Humor_Silly) April 11, 2023

The video was also shared by BJP Tripura state general secretary Amit Rakshit and Twitter Blue users like  @BefittingFacts, @Incognito_qfs and @PaltuPaltann. (Archives can be founder, here, here, here and here)

Screenshots of the viral tweets are attached below.

The clip also went viral on Facebook.

Fact Check

A simple keyword search on YouTube led us to the original video clip from Rahul Gandhi’s official YouTube channel which was posted on April 11. The video, which is approximately over an hour long, was the live coverage of the Congress party’s public meeting held at Kalpetta in Wayanad, Kerala. The live video was also shared by the Congress party’s official Twitter handle. (Archive)

At the 1:07:48 mark, the differently-abled man is first seen extending his right arm to greet Rahul Gandhi, while his left arm is holding a placard with Gandhi’s picture printed on it along with the text- “We are with Rahul”. He can be clearly seen raising his right arm at 1:08:22 to shake Rahul Gandhi’s hand. Thus, the viral claim that Gandhi had ‘foolishly’ extended a handshake to a disabled man is misleading.

Below we have attached screengrabs of the exact moments where he can be seen raising his right arm.

We noticed that the spokesperson of INC Karnataka and national social media co-ordinater of INC India, Lavanya Ballal Jain, responded to Malviya’s tweet, stating, “The troll army chief is at it again!  @TwitterSupport @TwitterIndia this is an doctored video by @amitmalviya.” (Archive)

The troll army chief is at it again!@TwitterSupport @TwitterIndia this is an doctored video by @amitmalviya https://t.co/aUdtogAwVd

— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) April 12, 2023

Kerala Pradesh Congress Sevadal’s official Twitter handle posted a picture of Rahul Gandhi embracing the disabled person. The person can be seen holding the placard with his left arm. (Archive)

पूरा देश ही परिवार हो जिसका, पूरा देश ही घर हो जिसका उसको क्या ख़ाक तुम डरपोक लोग डराओगे! @RGWayanadOffice pic.twitter.com/i7k9gmLPTk

— Kerala Pradesh Congress Sevadal (@SevadalKL) April 12, 2023

As per reports by The Print, this was Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi’s first visit to Wayanad after the latter’s disqualification as a Lok Sabha member. The duo visited the Kerala border district on April 11 to participate in various activities organised by the UDF. Previously, Wayanad witnessed strong protests, including the burning of an effigy of PM Modi by Congress workers and its youth and student wings, over Rahul’s disqualification.

To sum up, social media is rife with a misleading claim that Rahul Gandhi had ‘insensitively’ offered a handshake to a differently-abled man in a public meeting at Wayanad, Kerala. A close inspection of the full video posted on Rahul Gandhi’s YouTube channel shows that the person had first extended his right arm to greet Gandhi. The man can be seen extending his arm for Gandhi twice within a span of 30 seconds.

The post Video of Rahul Gandhi greeting differently-abled person viral with misleading claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abira Das.

The Congress leader had made the remark at a press conference on March 25 when asked if he would apologize for the statement that led to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Against this backdrop, some Twitter users have claimed that Rahul Gandhi deleted all his tweets on VD Savarkar after the backlash from the latter’s grandson.

Sheetal Chopra, who describes herself as an RSS volunteer and ‘Modibhakt’ in her bio, took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi while making the claim. (Archive)

Darpok Fattu Rahul Gandhi deletes all the tweets on Veer Savarkar

His shortest journey from “ Daro Mat “to “Daro Mat aayega tho Modi hi”

pic.twitter.com/mXQprm0PXD

— Sheetal Chopra (@SheetalPronamo) March 28, 2023

Amit Athir, a social media activist according to his bio, made the same claim while replying to a tweet by Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, and wrote that Rahul was scared of the threat of an FIR against him. (Archive)

डर गए राहुल गांधी !!

वीर सावरकर पर किए गए सभी ट्वीट किया डिलीट।

राहुल गांधी ने FIR के डर से डिलीट किया ट्वीट।

वीर सावरकर के पोते रणजीत सावरकर ने राहुल द्वारा माफी न मांगने पर FIR करने की कही है बात। pic.twitter.com/2OvCsRNJPV

— Amit Ahir (@AmitAhir_) March 28, 2023

Users Ashok Srivastav (a journalist with DD News) and Subir H Chaudhuri quote-tweeted entrepreneur Jagdish Bhatia and made the same claim. Chaudhuri said Rahul had deleted the tweets on the advice of Sharad Pawar.

Several other Right Wing users made the same claim but later almost all of them deleted their tweets. Archived links to their tweets are, however, available.

Among them are Supreme Court lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha and entrepreneur Arun Pudur, both of whom frequently share misinformation on social media, Amitabh Chaudhary, Twitter handles MeghUpdates and Know the nation, entrepreneur-cum-journalist Pradeep Bhandari, and Prajwal Busta, who describes herself as BJP’s Himachal spokesperson. Arun Pudur even claimed that all UPA parties had agreed to not speak against Savarkar anymore. Screenshots of their now-deleted tweets can be seen below:

Fact Check

Alt News found an archive of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter timeline as of March 25, 2023. The total number of tweets shown here is 6,782, and the last tweet here is the following:

मैंने प्रधानमंत्री की आखों में डर देखा है – वो डरते हैं अडानी पर संसद में मेरे अगले भाषण से।

सीधा सवाल है – शेल कंपनियों द्वारा अडानी समूह में लगाया गया ₹20,000 करोड़ का विदेशी पैसा किसका है?

ये सारा नाटक इसी सवाल से ध्यान भटकाने के लिए है।

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2023

Then we noted that live count of tweets on Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account. It stands at 6,786.

So, four tweets have been added. Scrolling down the timeline, we could find the our tweets. These four tweets can be seen in the following gallery, starting from the latest:

Had Rahul Gandhi deleted any tweet in this period, the numbers would not add up.

Next, Alt News checked the details of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter activities on the Social Blade website and found that between March 27 (the day Ranjit Savarkar spoke about the FIR) and March 29 (the day of this story being written) Rahul Gandhi’s total tweet count had gone up by one (01). From 6,785 on March 26, it went up to 6,786 on March 27. In other words, he had tweeted only once within this time frame, and that was on March 27. (See highlighted part)

Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter timeline corroborates this. On March 27, he tweeted about the controversy regarding Gautam Adani.

Had Rahul Gandhi deleted any tweet on or after March 27, it would have reflected on the Social Blade statistics, i.e., the total number of tweets would have gone down. One might argue that the Congress leader deleted X number of tweets and tweeted X+1 times and hence Social Blade data shows an increase of one in the total number of tweets. However, Rahul’s Twitter timeline clearly shows that is not the case.

We also did a keyword search on Google with the terms “Rahul Gandhi” “tweeted” “Savarkar” to see if any media outlet ever reported on Rahul Gandhi tweeting about VD Savarkar, who has been a hotly debated topic for quite some time in national politics. The search results did not yield any such news report.

To sum up, the claim by Right Wing Twitter users that Rahul Gandhi deleted tweets on VD Savarkar after the threat of an FIR from Ranjit Savarkar on March 27 is false. The simple reason a keyword search with ‘Savarkar’ on the Congress leader’s timeline does not yield any result is the fact that he never tweeted on VD Savarkar.

The post Right Wing users falsely claim Rahul Gandhi deleted Savarkar tweets, then delete their own tweets appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.

The move was widely criticized by the Congress party which also accused the Narendra Modi government of ‘killing democracy’. Various opposition leaders too came out in support of Gandhi, with some calling it a ‘black day’ for democracy.

In the context of the Congress leader’s disqualification, a photograph of Rahul Gandhi tearing a piece of paper is circulating on social media. It is being claimed that in 2013, when the Manmohan Singh-led government brought an ordinance to negate a Supreme Court order on the disqualification of convicted MPs and MLAs, Rahul Gandhi criticized the move and publicly tore up the ordinance.

Rishi Bagree, who has a history of amplifying political misinformation, shared the photograph and wrote, “It’s a decision based on Supreme Court judgement passed in 2013. Manmohan Singh wanted to bring an ordinance against this but Rahul Gandhi had torn that paper!” (Archive.)

This picture from 2013 will haunt Rahul Gandhi forever pic.twitter.com/CkX8vbtpop

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) March 24, 2023

Shashank Shekhar Jha, a Supreme Court lawyer, tweeted the same photograph with a summary of the events. (Archive.)

2013:
No one who is convicted for two or more years of jail can be elected to Parliament and Assembly
– Supreme Court

Manmohan Singh govt brought ordinance to overturn it.@RahulGandhi tore the Ordinance publicly.

2023: Rahul Gandhi is ordered 2 years of jail. pic.twitter.com/YRdA2RJ4UV

— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) March 23, 2023

Dilip Mandal, the former managing editor of India Today Hindi Magazine, tweeted a thread on the matter and used the same photograph. (Archive.)

History has come a full circle for Rahul Gandhi as his opposition to an ordinance in 2013 led to the disqualification of Lalu Yadav. Now, Rahul Gandhi faces disqualification under the same act, as Lalu Yadav’s fate echoes in his own. pic.twitter.com/ra0NctPqa8

— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) March 23, 2023

YouTube-based news outlet Editorji posted a video report where they said Rahul Gandhi had publicly torn a copy of the ordinance in 2013.

Fact check

Alt News found that several news reports mentioned that at a press conference in September 2013, Rahul Gandhi had torn an ordinance which protected leaders from disqualification. Live Mint, for example, wrote, “During a public media interaction, Gandhi tore the ordinance publicly and had said, “I will tell you what my opinion on the ordinance is. It’s complete nonsense and it’s my personal opinion. It should be torn up and thrown out.” (Archive)

Taking note of this, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and came across a 3-minute clip uploaded by Indian National Congress on September 27, 2013. The title of this clip says, “Rahul Gandhi: Stop the ordinance that saves criminal politicians – September 27, 2013”.

Below we have provided a transcript of the clip:

Rahul Gandhi: I called up Maken ji (referring to Congress leader Ajay Maken) and I asked him what is going on. What are you doing? I had some work with him and he said that I’m here with the press, meet the press and I said kya baat-chit ho rahi hai? So he said well Ordinance ke bare main baat-chit ho rahi hai. So I said what? and he sort of gave me the explanation. He gave me the line… Right? the political line that everybody will give you, the Congress will give you; the BJP will give you; everybody will give it to you. I will tell you what my opinion of the ordinance is. My opinion on the ordinance is that it’s complete nonsense and that it should be torn up and thrown out. That’s my opinion, my personal opinion on the ordinance. I will repeat it for you, my opinion on the ordinance is that it should be torn up and thrown away. Okay, the arguments that are being made and I’ve heard the arguments in my organization. The argument that is being made is that we need to do this. Internally, I’m telling you what is happening internally… We need to do this because of political considerations… Everybody does this; the Congress Party does this; the BJP does this; the Janata Dal does this; the Samajwadi does this; everybody does this. And there’s a time to stop this nonsense. And I really feel that it’s about time they put it in the parties, mine and all others… Stop making these type of compromises. Because if we want to actually fight corruption in this country, whether it’s us the Congress party or the BJP, we cannot continue making these small compromises because when we make these small compromises we compromise everything… So that’s my position on the ordinance. Thank you.”

He adds, “I am not interested in what any Opposition leader says, I am interested in what the Congress party is doing. I am interested in what our government is doing and I feel… personally feel that what our government has done as far as this ordinance is concerned is wrong. Thank you.”

The only reference to the ordinance being torn in this clip is when Rahul Gandhi says “it should be torn up and thrown out”. He does not actually tear the ordinance in the meeting.

We then checked a report by The Times of India, which was published the very next day after this presser. TOI wrote that Rahul Gandhi on that day intervened and sealed the fate of the “contentious legislation”, embarrassing then PM Manmohan Singh hours before his meeting with Barack Obama in Washington DC.

The report also mentioned that Gandhi had written to the PM to express his displeasure over the ordinance. It says that “Rahul had taken care to be respectful in his letter to the PM, his rebuke at the press meet didn’t take away from the perception that the criticism had undermined Singh’s authority”.

There is a reference to Rahul Gandhi allegedly tearing the ordinance to shreds, but the phrase is used in a metaphorical sense, rather than literal.

Alt News also found a CNN IBN clip uploaded on YouTube which summarises the event with timestamps of Rahul arriving and leaving. In this entire clip, we do not see Gandhi physically tearing the ordinance. All the references to him “tearing” the ordinance are metaphorical. A Times Now clip from 2013 also does not show anything related to him physically tearing the ordinance copy.

Unrelated Photo

The viral photo of Rahul Gandhi tearing a piece of paper is from 2012. We performed a keyword search on Google and the first result was an NDTV report titled “In dramatic flourish, Rahul Gandhi rips up paper at rally“.

A Twitter user shared a close-up of the list on the platform the same day. (Archive.)

Rahul Gandhi’s truth list which he rips in rally pic.twitter.com/fEGMgw3t

— Ankush Pandey (@ankushraj29) February 16, 2012

To summarize, the photograph of Rahul Gandhi tearing a piece of paper is from a rally in 2012 and has nothing to do with the ordinance brought by the Manmohan Singh government in 2013. In fact, the claim that Rahul Gandhi tore a copy of the ordinance in a press conference is also a case of media misreport. He did vociferously slam the ordinance, and according to reports, his objection led to it being withdrawn even after it was cleared by the Union Cabinet, but he did not physically tear up a copy of the ordinance.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not tear disqualification ordinance in 2013; unrelated image viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

— Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation

“There are well over 90 UN Security Council resolutions that are currently being violated by countries other than Iraq. The vast majority of these resolutions are being violated by allies of the United States that receive U.S. military, economic, and diplomatic support. Indeed, the U.S. has effectively blocked the UN Security Council from enforcing these resolutions against its allies.” 

— Stephen Zunes, Associate Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco

“In his [President Bush’s] speech to the nation on Oct. 7, he said ‘America is a friend of the people of Iraq.’ Try telling that to a friend of mine in Baghdad who walked out of his house following a U.S. bomb attack to find his neighbor’s head rolling down the street; or to a taxi driver I met whose four-year-old child shook uncontrollably for three days following Clinton’s 1998 ‘Monicagate’ bombing diversion. Try telling it to the mother of Omran ibn Jwair, whom I met in the village of Toq al-Ghazzalat after a U.S. missile killed her 13-year-old son while he was tending sheep in the field. Try telling it to the hundreds of mothers I have seen crying over their dying babies in Iraqi hospitals, and to the hundreds of thousands of parents who have actually lost their infant children due to the cruel U.S. blockade, euphemistically called ‘sanctions.'”

— James Jennings, President, Conscience International 

“…the establishment of the ‘no-fly zones’ violated Iraq’s sovereignty, something explicitly guaranteed by every Security Council resolution on Iraq. The infiltration of spies into Unscom … was a further violation of the inspections process – and among the information they collected was anything that could help target Saddam Hussein for assassination, in violation of both international law and domestic executive order …. the U.S. used (weapons) inspections explicitly to provoke crises …”

— Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism

“… a unilateral attack by the United States and the United Kingdom against Iraq without further authorization from the Security Council would still remain illegal and therefore constitute aggression. In recognition of this fact, British government officials are already reportedly fearful of prosecution by the International Criminal Court. And the Bush Jr. administration is doing everything humanly possible to sabotage the ICC in order to avoid any prospect of ICC prosecution of high-level U.S. government officials over a war against Iraq. Lawyers call this ‘consciousness of guilt.'”

— Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois, College of Law

“Claims of a threat posed by Iraq to international peace and security are entirely untenable. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet refuted Bush’s claims in a letter to the Senate, where he said clearly the threat of an Iraqi WMD attack was virtually nonexistent, except possibly in the eventuality of a U.S. war for ‘regime change.’ Nobody claims Iraq has nuclear weapons, nobody has produced any evidence that Iraq is capable of weaponizing biological agents, and it’s quite clear that Iraq can have no more than a nominal chemical weapons capability.”

— Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism

“… the U.S. government has repeatedly stated that it would continue the economic sanctions even if Iraq were to fully comply with the weapons inspectors. This means the U.S. policy over the last decade gave a disincentive for Iraqi compliance with the weapons inspectors and ensured an indefinite continuation of the devastating economic sanctions with no legitimate cause.”

— -Sam Husseini, Communications Director, Institute For Public Accuracy

“Although it’s true that Iraq has repeatedly restricted access, its degree of compliance is very high – far higher than the compliance of most nations with regard to binding decisions like Security Council resolutions or judgments of the International Court of Justice. Israel, for example, is in violation of numerous Security Council resolutions with no attempt at progress toward compliance. The United States vetoes Security Council resolutions directed against it, as it did with a resolution against its invasion of Panama, and it completely ignored a ruling by the International Court of Justice to cease its terrorist operations against Nicaragua and to pay $17 billion in restitution.”

— Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism

“Language finding Iraq already in ‘material breach’ and being given ‘a final opportunity’ to come clean is a rather ominous way of predetermining the outcome …”

— James Jennings, President, Conscience International

“We must not forget what this [UN Security Council Resolution 1441] does not do. It does not authorize the United States to go to war against Iraq. Despite claims to the contrary by the United States, that can only happen by means of a second resolution. The UN Charter requires specific and unambiguous authorization for the use of force; it is for the Security Council and not the United States to decide the consequences of any failure to implement resolutions.”

— Michael Ratner, President, Center For Constitutional Rights

“Since Bush came to office, the United States government has torn up more international treaties and disregarded more UN conventions than the rest of the world has in twenty years. It has scuppered the biological weapons convention while experimenting, illegally, with biological weapons of its own. It has refused to grant chemical weapons inspectors full access to its laboratories, and has destroyed attempts to launch chemical inspections in Iraq. It has ripped up the antiballistic missile treaty, and appears to be ready to violate the nuclear test ban treaty. It has permitted CIA hit squads, to recommence covert operations of the kind that included, in the past, the assassination of foreign heads of state. It has sabotaged the small arms treaty, undermined the international criminal court, refused to sign the climate change protocol and, last month, sought to immobilize the UN convention against torture.”

— George Monbiot, The Guardian

“All he [UN weapons inspector Hans Blix] can know is the results (sic) of his own investigations. And that does not prove Saddam does not have weapons of mass destruction.”

— Richard Perle, Chairman, Defense Policy Board

“What it would prove would be that the inspection process had been successfully defeated by the Iraqis.”

— Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on what a lack of evidence of Iraqi WMDs would prove

“If they [the Iraqis] turn on their radars we’re going to blow up their goddamn SAMs. They know we own their country. We own their airspace …. We dictate the way they live and talk. And that’s what’s great about America right now. It’s a good thing, especially when there’s a lot of oil out there we need.”

— U.S. Brigadier General William Looney, 1996 

“Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”

— President George Bush to Condoleezza Rice

Sources:

General Looney quote: William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, (Common Courage, 2000) p. 159

Zunes quotes from Stephen Zunes, Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism, (Common Courage, 2003)

GW Bush quote: Time magazine, May 13, 2002, “We’re Taking Him Out”

Remaining quotes from Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich, Target Iraq: What the News Media Don’t Tell You, (Context Books, 2003) p. 5, 51, 54, 71, 97-8, 142-86 passim.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Michael K. Smith.

— Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation

“There are well over 90 UN Security Council resolutions that are currently being violated by countries other than Iraq. The vast majority of these resolutions are being violated by allies of the United States that receive U.S. military, economic, and diplomatic support. Indeed, the U.S. has effectively blocked the UN Security Council from enforcing these resolutions against its allies.” 

— Stephen Zunes, Associate Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco

“In his [President Bush’s] speech to the nation on Oct. 7, he said ‘America is a friend of the people of Iraq.’ Try telling that to a friend of mine in Baghdad who walked out of his house following a U.S. bomb attack to find his neighbor’s head rolling down the street; or to a taxi driver I met whose four-year-old child shook uncontrollably for three days following Clinton’s 1998 ‘Monicagate’ bombing diversion. Try telling it to the mother of Omran ibn Jwair, whom I met in the village of Toq al-Ghazzalat after a U.S. missile killed her 13-year-old son while he was tending sheep in the field. Try telling it to the hundreds of mothers I have seen crying over their dying babies in Iraqi hospitals, and to the hundreds of thousands of parents who have actually lost their infant children due to the cruel U.S. blockade, euphemistically called ‘sanctions.'”

— James Jennings, President, Conscience International 

“…the establishment of the ‘no-fly zones’ violated Iraq’s sovereignty, something explicitly guaranteed by every Security Council resolution on Iraq. The infiltration of spies into Unscom … was a further violation of the inspections process – and among the information they collected was anything that could help target Saddam Hussein for assassination, in violation of both international law and domestic executive order …. the U.S. used (weapons) inspections explicitly to provoke crises …”

— Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism

“… a unilateral attack by the United States and the United Kingdom against Iraq without further authorization from the Security Council would still remain illegal and therefore constitute aggression. In recognition of this fact, British government officials are already reportedly fearful of prosecution by the International Criminal Court. And the Bush Jr. administration is doing everything humanly possible to sabotage the ICC in order to avoid any prospect of ICC prosecution of high-level U.S. government officials over a war against Iraq. Lawyers call this ‘consciousness of guilt.'”

— Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois, College of Law

“Claims of a threat posed by Iraq to international peace and security are entirely untenable. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet refuted Bush’s claims in a letter to the Senate, where he said clearly the threat of an Iraqi WMD attack was virtually nonexistent, except possibly in the eventuality of a U.S. war for ‘regime change.’ Nobody claims Iraq has nuclear weapons, nobody has produced any evidence that Iraq is capable of weaponizing biological agents, and it’s quite clear that Iraq can have no more than a nominal chemical weapons capability.”

— Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism

“… the U.S. government has repeatedly stated that it would continue the economic sanctions even if Iraq were to fully comply with the weapons inspectors. This means the U.S. policy over the last decade gave a disincentive for Iraqi compliance with the weapons inspectors and ensured an indefinite continuation of the devastating economic sanctions with no legitimate cause.”

— -Sam Husseini, Communications Director, Institute For Public Accuracy

“Although it’s true that Iraq has repeatedly restricted access, its degree of compliance is very high – far higher than the compliance of most nations with regard to binding decisions like Security Council resolutions or judgments of the International Court of Justice. Israel, for example, is in violation of numerous Security Council resolutions with no attempt at progress toward compliance. The United States vetoes Security Council resolutions directed against it, as it did with a resolution against its invasion of Panama, and it completely ignored a ruling by the International Court of Justice to cease its terrorist operations against Nicaragua and to pay $17 billion in restitution.”

— Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism

“Language finding Iraq already in ‘material breach’ and being given ‘a final opportunity’ to come clean is a rather ominous way of predetermining the outcome …”

— James Jennings, President, Conscience International

“We must not forget what this [UN Security Council Resolution 1441] does not do. It does not authorize the United States to go to war against Iraq. Despite claims to the contrary by the United States, that can only happen by means of a second resolution. The UN Charter requires specific and unambiguous authorization for the use of force; it is for the Security Council and not the United States to decide the consequences of any failure to implement resolutions.”

— Michael Ratner, President, Center For Constitutional Rights

“Since Bush came to office, the United States government has torn up more international treaties and disregarded more UN conventions than the rest of the world has in twenty years. It has scuppered the biological weapons convention while experimenting, illegally, with biological weapons of its own. It has refused to grant chemical weapons inspectors full access to its laboratories, and has destroyed attempts to launch chemical inspections in Iraq. It has ripped up the antiballistic missile treaty, and appears to be ready to violate the nuclear test ban treaty. It has permitted CIA hit squads, to recommence covert operations of the kind that included, in the past, the assassination of foreign heads of state. It has sabotaged the small arms treaty, undermined the international criminal court, refused to sign the climate change protocol and, last month, sought to immobilize the UN convention against torture.”

— George Monbiot, The Guardian

“All he [UN weapons inspector Hans Blix] can know is the results (sic) of his own investigations. And that does not prove Saddam does not have weapons of mass destruction.”

— Richard Perle, Chairman, Defense Policy Board

“What it would prove would be that the inspection process had been successfully defeated by the Iraqis.”

— Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on what a lack of evidence of Iraqi WMDs would prove

“If they [the Iraqis] turn on their radars we’re going to blow up their goddamn SAMs. They know we own their country. We own their airspace …. We dictate the way they live and talk. And that’s what’s great about America right now. It’s a good thing, especially when there’s a lot of oil out there we need.”

— U.S. Brigadier General William Looney, 1996 

“Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”

— President George Bush to Condoleezza Rice

Sources:

General Looney quote: William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, (Common Courage, 2000) p. 159

Zunes quotes from Stephen Zunes, Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism, (Common Courage, 2003)

GW Bush quote: Time magazine, May 13, 2002, “We’re Taking Him Out”

Remaining quotes from Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich, Target Iraq: What the News Media Don’t Tell You, (Context Books, 2003) p. 5, 51, 54, 71, 97-8, 142-86 passim.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Michael K. Smith.

Democracy defenders sounded the alarm Friday after senior Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was ousted from his parliamentary seat a day after being sentenced to two years in prison in a dubious defamation case involving an insult against the surname of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India's lower house of Parliament announced Friday that Gandhi—a former president of the Indian National Congress party (called Congress for short) who until Thursday represented the constituency of Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala—was disqualified to serve in office due to his conviction for defaming the Modi name.

The case involved Gandhi allegedly asking during a 2019 campaign rally in Kolar, Karnataka, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?"

The Times of Indiareports Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate H. H. Varma convicted Gandhi for defamation under the Indian Penal Code. Varma granted Gandhi bail on a bond of ₹15,000 (approx. $180) and suspended the sentence for 30 days so he may appeal.

While convicting Gandhi, Varma said that the defendant could have limited his insult to the prime minister, but by disparaging all people with the name, the defendant "intentionally" defamed them.

The Modi surname comes from the Modh Ghanchi or Teli Ghanchi community primarily inhabiting western states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajashtan, and traditionally employed in the oil pressing and trading business. Although officially designated an Other Backward Caste, Gujaratis do not view the widely successful group as such.

Gandhi tweeted Friday that he is "fighting for the voice of India" and is "ready to pay any cost."

Congress called Gandhi's conviction an "infirm, erroneous, and unsustainable" judgment.

Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the government's "efforts to create a chilling effect, a throttling effect, strangulating effect on open, fearless speech relating to public interest, will not stop either Rahul Gandhi or the Congress party."

"There are some disturbing aspects of this judgment which of course will be subject to challenge immediately, but firstly, the heart of the law of criminal defamation is that persons who are complainants should be those who must be able to demonstrate how they personally have been defamed, or prejudiced," Singhvi continued.

"Now," he added, "the admitted position is that no one who is the subject matter of the statement which is found to be offending has filed a criminal complaint."

M.K. Stalin, the leftist chief minister of Tamil Nadu state, tweeted that "the metamorphosis of BJP's vindictive politics into autocracy is happening at an alarming pace," a reference to Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The prime minister is also a member of the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary group.

"The disqualification of Rahul Gandhi is an onslaught on all the progressive-democratic forces of our country," Stalin said in a statement Friday. "All the political parties in India shall realize this and we should oppose unitedly."

In the United States, Democratic California Congressman Ro Khanna—whose parents immigrated from Punjab state— called Gandhi's ouster a "deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India's deepest values."

"This is not what my grandfather sacrificed years in jail for," Khanna added, referring to former Congress parliamentarian and independence movement figure Amarnath Vidyalankar. "Narendra Modi, you have the power to reverse this decision for the sake of Indian democracy."

Arundhati Roy, the renowned Indian writer, said during a Wednesday lecture at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm that "India's democracy is being systematically disassembled. Only the rituals remain."

Mentioning the persecution of religious minorities—especially Muslims—the brutal military occupation of Kashmir, and the imprisonment of journalists, Roy added that "India for all practical purposes has become a corporate, theocratic Hindu state, a highly policed state, a fearsome state [seething] with Hindu supremacist fervor."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

Rajesh Munat, a BJP leader and former Chhattisgarh minister, shared this video and asked Rahul to learn the true meaning, pronunciation and expression of ‘Satyagraha’.

सत्याग्रह का अर्थ , उच्चारण और भाव तो सीख लीजिये @RahulGandhi जी ! हमे न सिखाएं ! @BJP4India ने देश की जनता के साथ कई वर्षों तक कांग्रेस की नीतियों के खिलाफ सत्याग्रह किया है!
गलती से आपके मन की बात जुबां पर आ ही गई..कांग्रेस का एक ही मंत्र है “सत्ता के रास्ते को कभी मत छोड़ो” pic.twitter.com/3fO4uF1taF

— Rajesh munat (@RajeshMunat) February 26, 2023

Deepak Kumar, a television anchor for News Nation TV, shared this video with a similar caption, mocking Rahul Gandhi.

Sunday comedy by ……

“Mahatma Gandhi kehte the
SATTA ke raste ko kabhi mat chhodo” pic.twitter.com/x6sZK8gW76

— दीपक कुमार (@Deepak_Anchor) February 26, 2023

The video with similar captions has been shared by multiple internet users. The video has gone viral and Rahul Gandhi is being mocked for his alleged misuse of words. Some of the tweets and Facebook posts can be seen in the slideshow below.

Fact Check

By using relevant keywords on YouTube, Alt News found the speech in its entirety that Rahul Gandhi delivered at the 85th plenary session of the Indian National Congress at Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

In his speech, at 35:47, he refers to the ANI podcast with external affairs minister S Jaishankar, where the minister said India is a smaller economy as compared to China, hence it cannot fight with them (China). Rahul then adds, “When India fought against the Britishers, was the British economy smaller than India’s?”. He goes on to talk about Veer Savarkar and the BJP being associated with the same ideology, and uses the word ‘Kayartaa’ or cowardice. He also questions the BJP on patriotism and nationalism.

At 38:11 in his speech, Rahul refers to Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of Satyagraha. He says, “Mahatma Gandhi used to say…he used to talk about Satyagraha (passive resistance), what is the meaning of Satyagraha?”. He points at the audience and repeats, “do not ever get off the path of Satta (power)” he said, the viral clips ends here at 38:28 of the full video.

If one continues watching, one finds that Rahul immediately apologized and corrected himself. He says, “Sorry, do not ever get off the path of Satya (truth)”. He then went ahead and made a distinction between the Congress Party as being ‘Satyagrahi’ or agitators for truth and the BJP as being ‘Satta-grahi’ meaning, they are ready to go to any lengths for power.

Therefore, it is clear that the viral video of Rahul Gandhi is clipped. He made a slip of the tongue when he said ‘satta’ in place of ‘satya’. He immediately corrected himself.

In the past, several clipped videos of Rahul Gandhi have been viral. Readers can find related Alt News fact checks here.

The post Did Rahul say ‘satta’ in place of ‘satya’? Clipped video viral with misleading claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Vansh Shah.

The followers breached the barricades of the police station with guns and swords, visuals of which were displayed on television news across the nation. Later, on February 24, Lovepreet Singh walked out of Amritsar Central Jail after the local court ordered his release based on an application by the police, reported The Indian Express.

In this context, Amritpal Singh made several media appearances. On one such occasion, he told a Republic Bharat reporter, “There was no Bharat, there was no India before 1947… It’s a union of states, we must respect the unions, we must respect the states, otherwise you know, what we say if we don’t respect diversity, we will lose everything. So I do not agree with the definition of India…Modern India. All I am saying is everybody has the right to self-determine, if I say Punjab is a separate country, I have the right to do it…”

The viral bit started at the 40:31-minute mark.

Soon after this, several BJP leaders shared the video of Amritpal Singh making the comments alongside a clip of Rahul Gandhi saying, “You will find that India is described as a Union of States. India is not described as a nation, it is described as a Union of States.” The viral montage has a subsequent text at the bottom that reads, “Speaking same language.”

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit shared the clip and wrote,”#RahulGandhi speaking the same language as that of a #Khalistani leader”

#RahulGandhi speaking the same language as that of a #Khalistani leader .
Congress has not learnt lessons even after loosing their leaders .
They created #Bhindranwale & #AAP creats #AmritpalSingh .
Will pray the price . pic.twitter.com/skxL8ma0EO

— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) February 24, 2023

Assam chief minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma also shared the clip on Twitter and wrote, “See who speaks the language of Rahul Gandhi!”

See who speaks the language of Rahul Gandhi!

Amritpal Singh, who stormed a police station in Amritsar in a brazen act of defiance, is imitating his words.

Congress, its leaders & all those who use divisive language to disintegrate the sanctity of ‘Akhand Bharat’ must apologise! pic.twitter.com/jDefg2EE6a

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 24, 2023

Right Wing media personality Major Surendra Poonia, too, shared the clip on Twitter.

Same to Same ! pic.twitter.com/uWROd0DkoW

— Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) February 24, 2023

Fact Check

We found that the clip of Rahul Gandhi in circulation is from February 2022. The Congress leader in a 40-minute-long address in the Parliament spoke about the importance of cooperative federalism. He referred to the fact that in the Constitution, India is described as a union of states.

“If you read the Constitution of India, you will find it, and many of my colleagues who have not read it should look at it. You will find that India is described as a union of states, India is not described as a nation, it is described as a union of states. What does that mean? That means my brother from Tamil Nadu has to have the same rights as my brothers.. my sister from Maharashtra as my brother from Uttar Pradesh as my brother from Bihar or my sister from Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, that’s what it means”.

At the 18.50-minute mark he says, “There are two visions of this country. One vision is that it is a union of states. Meaning, that it is a negotiation, meaning, it is a conversation. Meaning, I go to my brother in Tamil Nadu and I say, what do you want? And he says, this is what I want. And then he asks me, what do you want? And I say this is what I want. It is a partnership. It is not a kingdom.”

He adds, “…It has always been ruled by conversation and negotiation. Now, the problem is you people are confused. The problem is you people think that these languages, these cultures, these histories… you think that you can suppress them. You have no idea of history, you have no idea what you are dealing with. Because the people of Tamil Nadu have inside their hearts the idea of Tamil Nadu, the idea of the Tamil language and then also the idea of India. Do not be confused.”

“There is another vision, a vision that India can be ruled by a stick of the Centre. You people have no idea of history. Because every time that has been attempted, the stick has been broken and smashed. Now what is happening is that the result of your flawed vision of the country, two Indias are of course being created… So, there are two visions. One is a union of states, the union of languages, and union of cultures. A bouquet of beautiful flowers that can challenge any power in the world. No power in the world has been able to challenge this bouquet of flowers. Now there is a second vision, a centralizing vision, the vision of a king.” Rahul said.

Below we have added the full speech, the relevant portion begins at the 17:05-minute mark.

The contrast between what Rahul said and what Amritpal Singh said

There is a clear contrast between what Rahul Gandhi said and what Amriptal Singh said. When we break down Rahul Gandhi’s speech, we notice that he spoke about the plurality of India.

Here we have highlighted the relevant section.

“You will find that India is described as a union of states. India is not described as a nation, it is described as a union of states. What does that mean? That means my brother from Tamil Nadu has to have the same rights as my brothers.. my sister from Maharashtra as my brother from Uttar Pradesh as my brother from the Bihar or my sister from Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram. That’s what it means.”

He also says, “… the people of Tamil Nadu have inside their hearts, the idea of Tamil Nadu, the idea of the Tamil language and then also the idea of India. Do not be confused.”

The words ‘also the idea of India‘ are crucial to the understanding of Rahul Gandhi’s thoughts.

When we compare this to Amritpal Singh’s speech, the distinction becomes clear.

Singh says, “It’s a union of states, we must respect the unions, we must respect the states, otherwise you know, what we say if we don’t respect diversity, we will lose everything. So I do not agree with the definition of India…Modern India. All I am saying is everybody has the right to self-determine, if I say Punjab is a separate country, I have the right to do it…”

The first part of his statement, just like Rahul Gandhi’s, talks about the diversity and plurality of India. However, the second part implies that a state can break away from the union because India is a union of states.

Below we have provided a table in which the similarity between Gandhi’s speech and Singh’s speech is highlighted in yellow and the distinction in green.

Significance of the phrase ‘union of states’

Article 1 of the Constitution says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”

Alt News also spoke with senior advocate Sanjoy Ghose regarding the statement of Rahul Gandhi. He said, “First of all, the Constitution does not deal with the concept of ‘nation’. The core of the Constitution is not a ‘nation’, but individuals. This is why you have fundamental rights for the individual and then you have directive principles for the community.”

He added, “Nation comes in through the 42nd Amendment where the Fundamental Duties were added. Some issues of the nation, like one must respect the national flag etc., were added. By and large, Rahul Gandhi paraphrased the Article 1 of the Constitution. It says Indian that is Bharat ‘shall be a Union of States’ and not ‘India is a Union of States’. This means that the Constitution permits you to modify the states, unlike the US constitution, which does not allow the Federation to create new states or alter the borders of existing states.”

The Indian Constitution allows the alteration of states and it has been done in the past, for example; the making of Jharkhand from Bihar. However, the central government cannot decide that all states would become Union Territories and would be governed from the Centre. Therefore, it uses the word, ‘shall be a Union of States’, which means it will always be a union of states. So the emphasis here is that one has to respect the plurality, one has to respect the rights of states, and one has to see it as the coming together of states.”

Ghose’s explanation of Article 1 of the Constitution appears to be directly in line with what Rahul Gandhi said. Moreover, Ghose put emphasis on the fact that though the Centre has the power to change boundaries and create new states out of existing states, which has been done in the past, it does not mean that the Centre can do away with states. There cannot be a situation where states do not exist and all power rests with the Centre.

To understand the historical context, Alt News looked at the writings and speeches of Dr Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution. A project by Ambedkar International Center (AIC) has made it possible to virtually access all of Dr Ambedkar’s writings. Here, we found that while addressing critics, Dr Ambedkar explained why Article 1 of the Draft Constitution described India as a union of states.

He said, “The Drafting Committee wanted to make it clear that though India was to be a Federation, the Federation was not the result of an agreement by the States to join in a Federation and that the Federation not being the result of an agreement no State has the right to secede from it.” Below we have added the relevant portion of his speech. Readers interested in reading the full text can do so by clicking on this link.

This text clearly states that the federation was not the result of an agreement by the states and hence no state has the right to secede.

Hence it is clear that there is distinction between what Rahul said and what Amritpal Singh said. Rahul’s words were in sync with the Constitution, but Singh’s were not.

On a related note, BJP leader and Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, too, recently made the remark that “India is a Union of States. Every State has its own rights”.

“Our India is a Union of States. Every State has its own rights,” says @CMofKarnataka @BSBommai in response to SS- @BJP4Maharashtra coalition govt raking up border dispute.

Demands action against incidents of vandalism before they create divide between States. @TheSouthfirst pic.twitter.com/cr8G9cDy9e

— Anusha Ravi Sood (@anusharavi10) November 25, 2022

The post ‘Union of states’: A sea of difference between what Rahul said & what Amritpal Singh said appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

Subsequently, the issue raised a huge row in the Parliament and the Congress launched a nationwide protest.

In this context, several Facebook users claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had met Hindenburg founder Nathan Anderson and shared a photo. Some of the posts can be seen in the following slide-show.

Fact Check

On simply reverse searching the image on Yandex, Alt News was able to get hold of several media reports from back in 2018 when Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi had visited Germany.

The Times of India carried the photo with a report of Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with German ministers in Hamburg. The Indian Express and The Tribune India also published similar reports. The image is from August 22, 2018 and the gentleman beside Rahul is identified in all these reports as Neils Annen, a minister of state and member of parliament.

The following is a screenshot of a PTI story carried by The Indian Express.

The official Twitter account of the Indian National Congress had tweeted the image and mentioned in caption that the person standing with Rahul was Neils Annen, one of the German leaders he met to discuss various issues.

Congress President @RahulGandhi met @NielsAnnen, Minister of State & Member of the Bundestag and discussed Indian & German politics, floods in Kerala, GST & Jobs.#WillkommenRahulGandhi pic.twitter.com/xLufHI3zY6

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 22, 2018

Hence, the viral image is not of Rahul Gandhi meeting Nathan Anderson. The image is from August 2018 when Gandhi visited Hamburg to meet German policymakers. The gentleman standing with Rahul is Neils Annen, German minister of state and member of parliament.

Vansh Shah is an intern with Alt News.

The post No, man standing with Rahul Gandhi in viral photo is not Hindenburg’s Nathan Anderson appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Vansh Shah.

Against this backdrop, several supporters of the Prime Minister have claimed while sharing a picture of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi that the latter had met the producer of the BBC documentary sometime last year.

Kavinder Gupta, the former deputy CM of Jammu and Kashmir, tweeted the photo and wrote, “Rahul with BBC documentary producer six months back. So it seems producer had planned the documentary six months back and financed by……..?”

Rahul with BBC documentary producer six months back.
So it seems producer had planned the documentary six months back and financed by……..?#JNUCampus #JNUSU pic.twitter.com/2qfLoOuI3N

— Kavinder Gupta (@KavinderGupta) January 25, 2023

Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, the BJP state general secretary of Andhra Pradesh, shared the image and wrote, “6 months ago @RahulGandhi went to UK & met the BBC producer. A picture is worth a thousand words!”

6 months ago @RahulGandhi went to UK & met the BBC producer.

A picture is worth a thousand words!#BBCdocumentry pic.twitter.com/Yua0pn0Li5

— Vishnu Vardhan Reddy (@SVishnuReddy) January 28, 2023

Verified Twitter blue users have also shared the viral image (here and here).

A Twitter account named @RudraBvm shared this picture with the same claim. The tweet has over 9,000 views and went viral. The photo also has a text at the bottom that reads, “6 months back Rahul went to the UK and met the BBC producer. Now we know why.”

Rahul and the BBC producer. Think about it. pic.twitter.com/ZR7Kv8Tm3a

— anil nag 2.0 (@RudraBvm) January 25, 2023

Hundreds of Twitter users have shared this image with similar claims indirectly and directly suggesting that Rahul Gandhi was behind a conspiracy to malign Narendra Modi’s image through the BBC documentary. Below we have added a screen recording showing the virality of the image. The image is also viral on Facebook.

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search using Google Lens and came across several news articles that used this image while covering Rahul Gandhi’s London trip in May 2022.

The individuals accompanying Rahul Gandhi in the picture are Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn in the centre and entrepreneur Sam Pitroda on the right, who served as an advisor to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is a close ally of the Congress Party.

After the image went viral recently as Rahul meeting ‘the BBC producer’, Sam Pitroda himself tweeted the image with a clarification.

In this photo, the First is @RahulGandhi, and the person in the middle is my friend @jeremycorbyn, with me. Mr. Corbyn is a British Politician (here is a link to his Wikipedia – https://t.co/O6r6SNf8NA) and not a @BBC executive.@BBCNews @BBCTwo pic.twitter.com/53EVUn9je9

— Sam Pitroda (@sampitroda) January 25, 2023

Therefore, this picture is not of Rahul Gandhi meeting a BBC producer. In fact, the picture shows him meeting Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Sam Pitroda during a London visit.

Vansh Shah is an intern with Alt News.

The post Rahul Gandhi’s photo with UK politician falsely viral as him meeting BBC Modi-docu producer appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Vansh Shah.

The national in-charge of the BJP’s information technology department, Amit Malviya, tweeted this video with the same claim. Malviya accused the Congress party of exploiting religious sentiments for political gain. (Archived link)

Everything is choreographed in Bharat Jodo Yatra including who should be called in to tie the turban and its colour. What is offensive though is Rahul Gandhi refusing to wear the turban when there were no cameras…Exploiting religious sentiments for politics is in Congress’s DNA. pic.twitter.com/PFTr5P68r4

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 11, 2023

BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa made a similar claim while tweeting the viral video. He called the Bharat Jodo Yatra a gimmick. (Archived link)

“ अभी नहीं बाँधूँगा” – कैमरा और मीडिया वाले नहीं थे तो @RahulGandhi ने सिर पर दस्तार सजाने से मना कर दिया

भारत जोड़ो यात्रा में “टी-शर्ट” से लेकर “दस्तार” तक…हर हरकत एक नौटंकी और लिखी हुई स्क्रिप्ट का हिस्सा है

गांधी परिवार का सिख विरोधी चेहरा एक बार फिर बेनक़ाब@ANI @republic pic.twitter.com/9ioD3DoAJn

— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) January 11, 2023

BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga also tweeted this clip claiming that Rahul Gandhi refused to don the turban in the absence of any cameras. (Archived link)

For @Rahulgandhi everything is for Votes and PR. अभी नहीं बाँधूँगा, अभी कैमरे नहीं है pic.twitter.com/bBs5wNJzjI

— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) January 11, 2023

Similarly, BJP leader Chetan Bragta and TV9 Bharatvarsh journalist Tanmay Shankar also amplified the video and accompanying claim.

Fact Check

Alt News noticed that the viral video contained a logo that read ‘News State Punjab’. We performed a keyword search using this information and found a Facebook page by the same name. Here, we found a high-quality version of the clip in circulation. It can be clearly heard in this video that Rahul Gandhi actually refused a woman’s request to pose with her for a picture. 

On the same Facebook page, we found an interview of Manjeet Singh Ferozpuria, the man who  tied the turban on Gandhi. Ferozpuria explains that he ties turbans for a living and has 18 years of experience. He was called to adorn the Congress chief with the dastar.

A video capturing this can also be found on his YouTube channel.

We reached out to Ferozpuria for more information on this matter. He explained that just as he was about to tie the dastar on Gandhi’s head, a woman approached him, asking to take a picture. In response, the leader stated that he did not want to be photographed now, and would do so after the turban was tied. Manjeet also sent us a recording of his statement in which he is refuting the allegation leveled against Rahul Gandhi by BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

To sum it up, several BJP leaders shared a video of Rahul Gandhi falsely claiming that he refused to wear a turban in the absence of cameras. In reality, a woman approached him while he was in the middle of getting the turban tied. When she asked to take a picture with him, he refused, saying that he would do so after the turban was fixed.

The post Did Rahul Gandhi refuse to wear turban in absence of camera? False claim by BJP leaders appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

A couple of days later, on January 10, a Twitter user, @BHKSpeaking, shared a 47-second clip of the event on the micro-blogging site with the caption: ‘PAUSE… Let the cameraman come….’ (Archive)

PAUSE… Let the cameraman come…. pic.twitter.com/hhUz3MkrXc

— BHK. (@BHKspeaking) January 10, 2023

The tweet received over one lakh views. It was retweeted 1,300 times.

The same clip was also tweeted by BJP supporter Anuj Tiwari (@emanujtiwari) with the same caption. (Archive)

PAUSE… Let the cameraman come….
pic.twitter.com/gj2MQPOiST

— Anuj Tiwari (@emanujtiwari) January 10, 2023

Fact Check

Using a keyword search on Twitter, we found a longer version of the clip shared by ANI. In this 3.57-minute video, it can be clearly seen that Rahul Gandhi did pause several times while performing aarti, but so did the priests in front of him, whom he was replicating. For example, at the 0.15-minute mark; again at 0.26. The viral video starts at the 3.16-minute mark of the longer video.

#WATCH | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi performs aarti at Brahma Sarovar in Kurukshetra, Haryana. pic.twitter.com/Mt9kNyrDHL

— ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2023

In other words, Rahul Gandhi was following a set of priests while performing the aarti. He paused when they paused. He resumed when they did. The viral video has been clipped from the longer version in a way that it seems the Congress leader is waiting for the camera person to take a position before beginning to perform aarti, which is not the case.

The side-by-side comparison of the viral video and a part of the original clip below proves this conclusively:

The Congress posted a 10-minute video of the event on its official YouTube channel. Here, Rahul can be seen performing aarti. He pauses along with the priests standing in front of him (for example, at the 6.37-minute mark). He then resumes as soon as they do. This continues throughout the time Rahul held the lamp.

Hence, it is clear that Rahul Gandhi did not pause for photographers while performing aarti in Kurukshetra, as claimed in some social media posts.

The post No, Rahul Gandhi didn’t wait for cameraman while performing aarti in Kurukshetra appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.

Amit Malviya, the in-charge of BJP’s national information & technology department, shared this clip on Twitter, and wrote, “Now they have a problem with the priests too…”

अब इनको पुजारियों से भी तकलीफ़ है… pic.twitter.com/zcWnNrVx1Y

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 8, 2023

Saurabh Marodia, the social media convenor of BJP Uttar Pradesh, shared the video on Twitter with similar captions.

अब इनको पुजारियों से भी तकलीफ़ है… pic.twitter.com/rSuU3e7sTq

— Saurabh Marodia (@SaurabhSMUP) January 8, 2023

Deepak Prakash, the state president of BJP Jharkhand shared the clip and wrote, “Now they have a problem with the priests too… That’s why the country has a problem with Congress.”

अब इनको पुजारियों से भी तकलीफ़ है…

इसीलिए देश को कांग्रेस से तकलीफ है…. pic.twitter.com/olQvg3zGFF

— Deepak Prakash (@dprakashbjp) January 8, 2023

Other Twitter users who have shared the video with similar captions include @MahantYogiG, @Moresachin8009, @bankim_jani, @ptravidwivedi, @Kanchan000222, and more.

The clip has also been shared on Facebook by several users.

Fact Check

We checked the Twitter account of Bharat Jodo Yatra (@bharatjodo) and noticed that the Congress leader had done a press interaction in Haryana on January 8 around 1:26 PM IST. A quick comparison of the video with the one shared by Amit Malviya suggested that the viral clip has been taken from this press event.

Taking a cure from  this, we checked the full press meet on YouTube. We noticed that the Congress leader spoke about ‘Tapasya’ (penance) and ‘Puja’ (worship) to distinguish between the ideologies of the Congress and the BJP. This discourse starts around the 28-minute mark.

He says, “If you look at the history of Congress… you just said there is an energy within the workers… this (Congress) is an organisation built on penance (Tapasya). If you ask it (the party) to observe penance, its energy increases. The BJP is an organisation of worship (Puja). If you ask the party to take part in worshiping, its energy increases. Worship can be of two kinds.. I am talking about religion… Normally, worshiping means I go to the gods and I ask for something. The person who is worshiping the god, takes the initiative. The RSS’s idea of worshiping is different. The RSS wants that people are forced to pray to them. Modiji wants — and that’s why he doesn’t meet you — that people pray to his forcibly. And that everyone in the country prays to them. There can be only one response to this, and that response is penance. And that is the reason this march has been so successful. Because in this march, not only the Congress party, not only one person,  but lakhs of people are also doing a penance.”

He then adds (from 29:55), “…Skills should be respected, hard work should be respected. This is what the Congress party says, historically. The BJP-RSS says there should be no respect for penance. Whoever prays to us, should be respected. Now look at demonetisation through this framework. Did demonetisation respect the penance of the poor? Not at all. It was an attack on penance. Its message was to the farmers, the menial labourers, to the small business owners that no matter how much penance you do, nothing will change…”

At 37:15-minute while answering a question, Rahul says “…This is a country of ascetics. The way some people say, ‘see Rahul Gandhi has walked so many kilometres’. Why don’t they talk about farmers? There is not a single farmer or labourer in this country who has walked less than me. Why don’t we talk about them? Because we don’t have respect for penance. I respect it. This is the change we want to bring. This country is of ascetics and not of worshipers. This is the reality of this country. And if this country wants to become a superpower, then we will have to respect the ascetics, the producers. We will have to meet them, we will have to open the doors of banks to them and protect them.”

After looking at the full context it could be understood that Rahul made an analogy between Congress and the BJP. Where he compared Congress party workers, farmers, menial labourers, small business owners, and others to that of an ascetic. And the BJP-RSS to those who demand that people come and pray to them.

Amit Malviya and BJP leaders yet again shared a video of Rahul Gandhi that has been taken out of context to attack him.

The post Did Rahul say he had a problem with priests? No, yet another clipped video shared without context by Amit Malviya appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

भारत जोड़ो यात्रा के टाइट शेड्यूल के बाद थकावट दूर करने के लिए पहले घूँघटा उठाया फिर पेट पर सुलाया जैसा सभ्य गाना सुनते हुए श्रीमान जी। pic.twitter.com/RKy2RBImhK

— Wasim R Khan (@wasimkhan0730) January 6, 2023

BJP Mumbai minority cell President Wasim R Khan tweeted the video, claiming that Rahul Gandhi was enjoying obscene Bhojpuri songs after Bharat Jodo Yatra. (Archived link)

Another user tweeted the video and wrote sarcastically that Rahul Gandhi was enjoying a patriotic cultural program following the Bharat Jodo Yatra. (Archived link)

भारत जोड़ो यात्रा के बाद
रात्रि में देशभक्ति पूर्ण सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रम
pic.twitter.com/BBtQ4N1Vc2

— Hasna Zaroori Hai (@HasnaZarooriHai) December 29, 2022

National president of Rashtriya Hindu Ekta Sangathan Alpana Tomar shared this video and wrote that Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were seen taking a break from the Bharat Jodo Yatra while an obscene Bhojpuri song was being played on stage. It was described as ‘the secret behind the padyatra’. (Archived link)

राजस्थान के यशस्वी मुख्यमंत्री श्रीमान गहलोत जी और देश के शसक्त प्रधानमंत्री पद के उम्मीदवार आदरणीय राहुल गांधी जी देश हित में जारी पदयात्रा के दौरान रात्रि विश्राम में आराम फरमाते हुए।
यह है 100 दिन पदयात्रा का सीक्रेट जिसे पूरा देश अनजान था। pic.twitter.com/sV1yuQfY7H

— Alpana tomar (@alpana_tomar) January 5, 2023

Fact Check

Alt News performed a keyword search, which led us to a December 16 article published by Punjab Kesari. As per the report, a concert was organized in Jaipur, Rajasthan to celebrate 100 days of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Singer Sunidhi Chauhan performed at this program.

Using this information as a clue, we performed a keyword search on Twitter with a date filter applied. This led us to the original video, which had been posted on December 16. With this video, the user wrote that Rahul Gandhi was seen attending Sunidhi Chauhan’s concert in Jaipur. In fact, it was not an obscene Bhojpuri song playing in the video, but singer Sunidhi Chauhan performing her song, ‘Right Here Right Now’.

Rahul Gandhi at Sunidhi Chauhan’s concert in Jaipur. pic.twitter.com/7w16x69buD

— Shantanu (@shaandelhite) December 16, 2022

To sum it up, a video of Rahul Gandhi was edited with the original audio replaced by an obscene Bhojpuri song. In reality, Gandhi and Ashok Gehlot were attending a concert organized in Jaipur, Rajasthan on completion of 100 days of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in which Sunidhi Chauhan performed.

The post Doctored clip: Bhojpuri song added to video of Rahul Gandhi attending concert appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

जब तक चल रही है… जब नहीं काम करेगी तो रोक देंगे…

ऐसे कैसे चलेगा, शहज़ादे? pic.twitter.com/VOe5U1m6w4

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 28, 2022

BJP Delhi secretary Kuljeet Singh Chahal made the same claim while tweeting the video. He claimed that the words suggested the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ was simply a ‘timepass’ and Rahul Gandhi was not taking it seriously. The tweet makes it appear as if Rahul Gandhi made the remark heard in the video in the context of the nationwide rally. (Archived link)

जब तक चल रही है… जब नहीं काम करेगी तो रोक देंगे…

For Rahul Gandhi, Bharat Jodo Yatra is timepass. pic.twitter.com/VlNWAl4FpL

— Kuljeet Singh Chahal (@kuljeetschahal) December 28, 2022

BJP Rajasthan state minister Laxmikant Bhardwaj also made the same claim while amplifying the nine-second video. (Archived link)

जब तक चल रही है… जब नहीं काम करेगी तो रोक देंगे…
pic.twitter.com/lQ7N7HCkIL

— Laxmikant bhardwaj (@lkantbhardwaj) December 28, 2022

Fact Check

Alt News noticed that National Youth Congress national president Srinivas BV replied to Malviya’s tweet with a 16-second video. In this video, a person says, “Will it always be a T-shirt?”. Gandhi responds by saying, “Will keep at it as long as I can. When it stops working, will stop.”

Malware, Kab Sudhroge??

कड़ाके की ठंड में Tshirt पहनकर एक तपस्वी चल रहा है, जल-जलकर धुआं तुम्हारा बदन हो रहा है pic.twitter.com/XELvkcmgvM

— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) December 28, 2022

ANI reporter Siddharth Sharma shared a longer video from the same gathering. According to him, a reporter had asked Rahul Gandhi about his T-shirt. Responding to the reporter, he replied with the viral remark. In other words, the BJP leaders shared the response to the reporter’s question without context. Along with this, it was wrongly claimed that Rahul was talking about ending the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

पत्रकारों ने पूछा कि टी शर्ट कब तक चलेगी? @RahulGandhi तपाक से बोले टी शर्ट ही चल रही है जब तक चलेगी चलाएंगे pic.twitter.com/RoNKDvVptW

— Siddharth sharma (@siddharthjourno) December 28, 2022

We removed the background noise from the audio in the viral clip with the help of the Veed.io tool and listened to the video more closely. Rahul Gandhi can be clearly heard saying, “Will keep at it as long as we can. When it stops working, I will put it back”. BJP leaders changed the words ‘rakh denge’ (will put it back) to ‘rok denge’ (will end) in their tweet, which makes it seem that Rahul Gandhi is talking about ending the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

To sum it up, BJP leaders tweeted a clipped video of Rahul Gandhi claiming that he was talking about stopping or ending the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. In reality, he was making this remark in the context of wearing a T-shirt during the campaign. However, BJP leaders made a false claim saying he said the phrase ‘rok denge’ (will end) instead of ‘rakh denge’ (will put it back) in the video.

The post Amit Malviya tweeted clipped video, Rahul didn’t hint at ending Bharat Jodo Yatra appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

A 20-second clip showing this moment was tweeted by BJP leader and in-charge of the party’s information technology department Amit Malviya wherein he alleged that Jitendra Singh was seen tying Rahul Gandhi’s shoes. He further called Gandhi ‘an arrogant entitled brat’ for not helping Jitendra Singh and ‘patting his back’ instead. (Archive)

Former union minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh goes down on his knee to tie Rahul Gandhi’s shoe lace. The arrogant entitled brat instead of helping himself is seen patting his back…

इसी परिपाटी की बात कर रहे थे खड़गे जी? कांग्रेस में पिद्दियों की कमी नहीं है। pic.twitter.com/FtHCCwNTwu

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 21, 2022

National secretary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga also tweeted the video and said ‘Former union minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh goes down on his knee to tie Rahul Gandhi’s shoe lace’. (Archive)

Former union minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh goes down on his knee to tie Rahul Gandhi’s shoe lace. pic.twitter.com/ZKhcerK2R9

— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) December 21, 2022

The official handle of BJP Rajasthan tweeted a video wherein the viral clip is juxtaposed alongside a compilation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi bowing down and greeting the elderly. The video is an attempt at drawing a comparison between the seemingly contrasting attitudes of Rahul Gandi and Narendra Modi. (Archive)

संस्कार अपने-अपने!
राहुल जी पूर्व केंद्रीय राज्य मंत्री भंवर जितेंद्र सिंह जी से अपना जूते का फीता बंधवाते हुए… pic.twitter.com/tGTw075jRt

— BJP Rajasthan (@BJP4Rajasthan) December 21, 2022

Rajasthan MLA Gopichand Meena also tweeted the same video and wrote “संस्कार अपने-अपने!”. (Archive)

संस्कार अपने-अपने!
राहुल जी पूर्व केंद्रीय राज्य मंत्री भंवर जितेंद्र सिंह जी से अपना जूते का फीता बंधवाते हुए…#RahulGandhi #Congress pic.twitter.com/3Ws3KNmr9f

— Gopichand Meena (@MlaGopichand) December 21, 2022

State president of BJP Chandigarh Arun Sood also tweeted the viral clip and stated that the incident exhibited the ‘mentality of slavery that has ruined the country’. (Archive)

कांग्रेस के पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री भंवर जितेंद्र सिंह झुक कर राहुल गांधी के जूते के तस्मे बांधते हुए, और उस पर राहुल गांधी उनकी पीठ थपथपाते हुए… यही है वो गुलामी की मानसिकता जिसने देश को बर्बाद किया है।

क्या गांधी परिवार के बिना @INCIndia का कोई अस्तित्व नहीं है? @BJP4India pic.twitter.com/ji7oL7BofA

— Arun Sood (@arunsoodbjp) December 21, 2022

The Free Press Journal published a report titled ‘Rahul Gandhi gets shoe laces tied by ex-Union Minister at Bharat Jodo Yatra, BJP says ‘entitled brat’. Watch video’. The sub-heading of the article reads ‘Rahul Gandhi was walking along with other party members when Bhanwar Jitendra Singh bent down and tied his shoe laces during the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana’. (Archive)

Fact Check

Shortly after the clip went viral, Jitendra Singh himself took to Twitter to refute the claim made by Amit Malviya and others. He tweeted an image wherein he can be seen bending down and tying his own shoe laces. The image is a screenshot from a video which captures the viral chain of events from a different angle. Jitendra Singh writes, “Great to see @BJP4India and it’s full machinery keenly observing #BharatJodoYatra and getting panicked by it’s tremendous success ! Resorting to the only thing they know how to do … lie !” (Archive)

Great to see @BJP4India and it’s full machinery keenly observing #BharatJodoYatra and getting panicked by it’s tremendous success !

Resorting to the only thing they know how to do … lie ! @amitmalviya @AmanKayamHai_ @TajinderBagga pic.twitter.com/mQglHM0B0M

— Jitendra Singh Alwar (@JitendraSAlwar) December 21, 2022

The chairperson of social media and digital platforms for the Indian National Congress, Supriya Shrinate, also uploaded the clip of the viral chain of events filmed from another angle. In the clip, Jitendra Singh can be clearly seen bending over and tying his own shoe laces while Rahul Gandhi pauses briefly. (Archive)

झूठ्ठा फिर पकड़ लिया गया

लेकिन असल में तो इस प्यादे से झूठ बुलाने का काम भाजपा अध्यक्ष नड्डा और PM मोदी करा रहे हैं

तो अब माफ़ी भी तीनों को माँगनी चाहिए। अपना ट्वीट डिलीट करो अमित मालवीय – फ़ेक न्यूज़ के सरग़ना

भारत जोड़ो यात्रा की सफलता से बौखलाहट में पगला गए हो क्या? pic.twitter.com/aVNzy6Me7N

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) December 21, 2022

Jitendra Singh Alwar quote-tweeted Amit Malviya and said that Malviya’s tweet was ‘a complete lie and defamatory’. According to the former minister’s tweet, Rahul Gandhi paused the march briefly upon his request so that he could tie his own shoelaces. He further demanded that Malviya deletes his tweet and apologizes to Rahul Gandhi or face legal action. (Archive)

As incharge of ruling BJP’s National Info Dept your tweet is a complete lie and defamatory.

The fact is that after being pointed out by Rahul ji upon my request he paused briefly so that I could tie my own shoe laces.

Delete the tweet and apologise to RG or face legal action https://t.co/HDXVii09bg

— Jitendra Singh Alwar (@JitendraSAlwar) December 21, 2022

The official handle of the Congress party also uploaded a video statement by Jitendra Singh wherein he clarified the chain of events. According to his statement, Jitendra Singh was unaware that his shoelaces had come untied while walking in the march. Rahul Gandhi then advised Jitendra Singh to tie his laces. Consequently, upon Jitendra Singh’s request, he paused for a while and Singh tied his own shoelaces. Jitendra Singh further states that Rahul Gandhi’s shoes do not have laces implying that there’s no possibility of him tying Gandi’s laces (Archive). Supriya Shrinate also tweeted an image of Rahul Gandhi’s shoes confirming this.(Archive).

BJP IT सेल ने FAKE खबर चलाई
——
यात्रा में चलते हुए मेरे जूते के फीते खुल गए, तभी राहुल गांधी जी की नजर पड़ी और उन्होंने मुझे फीते बांध लेने को कहा।

इस छोटी सी बात को गलत तरीके से पेश कर देश को गुमराह करने के लिए @RahulGandhi जी से माफी मांगे @amitmalviya

–@JitendraSAlwar जी pic.twitter.com/jcjyiff4WA

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 21, 2022

While Aaj Tak did not make a direct claim vis-à-vis the viral clip, they chose to use a clickbait caption. In their tweet, Aaj Tak wrote, ‘Rahul Gandhi left for Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana on Wednesday. During this time, a video went viral wherein Congress leader Jitendra Singh appears to be tying Rahul Gandhi’s shoelaces’. As the reader might notice, the information provided in the tweet lacks clarity and can mislead readers who don’t read the article and go only by the caption.

राहुल गांधी बुधवार को हरियाणा में अपनी भारत जोड़ो यात्रा लेकर निकले. इस दौरान उनका एक वीडियो वायरल हो गया, जिसे देखने से ऐसा लग रहा है कि कांग्रेस नेता जितेंद्र सिंह राहुल गांधी के जूते के फीते बांध रहे हैं.

(@Supriya23bh)https://t.co/2mrl3bMT7b

— AajTak (@aajtak) December 21, 2022

Hence, it is clear that a video of Jitendra Singh tying his shoelaces is being falsely circulated as Jitendra Singh tying Rahul Gandhi’s shoelaces. With reference to this fabricated claim, Gandhi has been called ‘an arrogant entitled brat’ by BJP leader Amit Malviya.

In the recent past, many cases of misinformation targeting Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra have been put out by members of the BJP. For instance, a video of Rahul Gandhi and some other Congress leaders coming out of a restaurant was circulated on social media with the claim that the politicians were inebriated during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. An Alt News fact-check found the claim to be categorically false. In another similar case of misinformation, an image of Rahul Gandhi with a girl was viral on social media with the claim that the girl seen with Rahul Gandhi is Amulya Leona, who was known to have raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans during the anti-CAA protest in Bangalore in 2020. An Alt News fact-check found the claims to be false.

Over the years Alt News has also documented how BJP information and technology chief Amit Malviya has consistently put out misinformation. Readers can find related reports here.

The post False claim by Amit Malviya; Jitendra Singh didn’t tie Rahul Gandhi’s shoelace appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

If only “chunavi Hindu” Rahul Gandhi knew that aarti is done clockwise and there is a scientific reason for it (earth moves in clockwise direction and hence environmental frequencies are in sync with movement), he would not be making a spectacle of himself in public like this… pic.twitter.com/5ZebOFAFm6

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 26, 2022

Neha Sharma of BJP Uttarakhand, too, tweeted Rahul Gandhi’s video and wrote, “This is what happens when the son of a Catholic mother and Parsi father pretends to be a Hindu for electoral gains, he does aarti anticlockwise.” (Archived link)

This is what happens when son of a Catholic mother and Parsi father pretends to be Hindu for electoral gains, he does aarti anti clockwise… pic.twitter.com/YeTFBcVv2i

— Neha Sharma, pahadi soul (@nehadun) November 26, 2022

Fact check

Alt News first reached out to a priest to confirm the direction in which the aarti is supposed to be performed. He confirmed that the lamp is supposed to be moved clockwise during the aarti ceremony. It is worth noting that Rahul Gandhi is indeed performing the aarti clockwise in the video tweeted by Amit Malviya. Since the camera lens is turned towards Gandhi’s face, the movements made on his right side are reflected and shown on the left in the camera’s sensor/screen.

The Congress party handle had also tweeted the video of Rahul Gandhi performing the aarti. In this video, both Gandhi and the priest are seen performing aarti in the clockwise direction. This means that just like the priest, Rahul Gandhi is performing the aarti in the right direction.

नमामि देवी नर्मदे#BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/3Bt312LLFw

— Congress (@INCIndia) November 25, 2022

Alt News examined several videos of the Narmada Aarti, Ganga Aarti, and Durga Aarti available on the internet. In each of these, the lamp is being moved clockwise. This confirms that Rahul Gandhi is, in fact, performing the aarti correctly. Articles covering the rules of aarti by outlets like Navbharat Times and Newstrack also mention that it is supposed to be performed clockwise.

To illustrate this, we have compared the footage of Rahul Gandhi performing the Narmada Aarti and a video of Shivraj Singh Chouhan performing an aarti. It is evident that both are performing aarti clockwise.

Does the earth rotate in the clockwise direction? 

The Earth is tilted at a 23.45 degree angle on its axis and rotates from west to east. In other words, the earth rotates in the anticlockwise direction. 

To sum it up, Amit Malviya falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi did not know the appropriate direction in which to perform the aarti. The Congress leader was indeed performing the aarti in the right direction, i.e. clockwise. Along with this, Malviya also made the bizarre claim that the earth rotates clockwise. This is summarily wrong. The earth rotates in an anticlockwise motion from west to east – something that is taught to children in primary schools.

The post Amit Malviya says earth rotates clockwise, makes false claim about Rahul Gandhi’s Narmada Ghat aarti appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Sharing this graphic, the Twitter handle of the Delhi Congress wrote, “The mood of the country is changing. Now the public has made up its mind to teach a lesson to the autocrats.” (Archived link)

The graphic was also promoted by the Twitter handle of the Tripura Pradesh Youth Congress. The accompanying caption read, “The Bharat Jodo Yatra will gradually wipe the BJP out of this country.” (Archived link)

Pankaj Prahlad Singh of Congress Delhi also amplified the graphic. 

Fact-check

Taking a closer look at the viral screengrab, Alt News noticed that below Rahul Gandhi’s statement is a ticker that reads, “Odisha’s remote control is with the corrupt chowkidar“.

We performed a keyword search using this statement of Gandhi’s. This led us to a report by Aaj Tak dated January 25, 2019. Rahul Gandhi made the remarks while addressing a rally in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. This confirms that this broadcast from Aaj Tak was aired sometime around January 25, 2019.

Next, we performed a keyword search on Twitter using a date filter and came across a video of this programme which was tweeted on January 25, 2019 by the official handle of Aaj Tak.

ये रहा पीएम मोदी और राहुल गांधी की लोकप्रियता का ग्राफ और लोकसभा चुनाव में जनता का मिजाज #MoodOfTheNation
देखिए #HallaBol @anjanaomkashyap के साथ.
लाइव: https://t.co/fOz5QPkk43 pic.twitter.com/RK8BvLNqli

— AajTak (@aajtak) January 25, 2019

The programme claimed on the basis of a survey that the popularity of Narendra Modi for the post of prime minister was 46 percent, while that of Rahul Gandhi was 34 percent. We noticed that the viral graphic used the original frame in context of the figures for Narendra Modi, which also matches the time stamp (17:59). However, the frame mentioning Rahul Gandhi (34%) is not the one used in the viral graphic.

Further in the show, it is revealed that among the Opposition leaders, Rahul Gandhi was the most popular alternative for Narendra Modi. Here, his popularity figure stood at 52 percent, the highest among the Opposition. In this context, the visual referring to Rahul Gandhi can be seen on screen. The time stamp (18:01) also lines up with the viral graphic.

Aaj Tak issued a tweet clarifying that the viral graphic was doctored. Following this, Congress’s social media and digital platform chairperson Supriya Shrinate took cognizance of the viral graphic and the tweet was taken down from the official handle of Delhi Congress. (Archived link)

मेरे संज्ञान में लाए जाने के तुरंत बाद @INCDelhi ने ट्वीट को डिलीट किया।

हम ग़लत तथ्यों को क़तई बर्दाश्त नहीं करते हैं-चाहे कहीं के भी हों।अपनी गलती का त्वरित सुधार और दूसरे की नज़रंदाज़ नहीं करते।

यह कांग्रेस का सिद्धांत है, पर क्या भक्तमंडली और नतमस्तक मीडिया एसा करेगा? https://t.co/Hy0BmMn0t2

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) October 13, 2022

To sum it up, Congress members falsely circulated an edited graphic from a 2019 Aaj Tak broadcast comparing figures from two different parameters to suggest that Rahul Gandhi’s popularity had surpassed that of Narendra Modi’s.

The post Congress handles share doctored graphic to claim Rahul ahead of Modi in popularity appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

It is worth noting that this picture is being shared in the context of Congress’ ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra‘, which began from Kanyakumari on September 7. As part of this initiative, several Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, will campaign for the party across the country. The yatra will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar after 150 days. However, the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ has been targeted by the opposition since it was kicked off. Readers can find related reports here.

The Rajasthan Youth Congress tweeted the image while praising Rahul Gandhi. (Archived link)

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh also retweeted the photo, amplified by Twitter handle ‘@CSBSiinm’.

Twitter handle ‘@UnitedWithINC’ also amplified the image. (Archived link)

Burnol moment for Bhakt’s#BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/r8dmfcCD8Z

— India Against Hate (@UnitedWithINC) September 27, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The screenshot is also widespread on Facebook.

Fact-check

It is worth noting that the anchor seen in the screenshot is Anand Narasimhan, who was formerly with Times Now channel. He is currently a senior anchor at News18. Hence, we suspected that the screengrab might be out of date.

Next, Alt News performed a reverse image search, which led us to a Times of India article dated December 19, 2017. The report, which also carries footage from Times Now, covers the 2017 Assembly elections held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. In the video, anchor Anand Narasimhan explains that most of the conversations about Rahul Gandhi are happening on social media. At the same time, 15 percent of people are talking about Prime Minister Modi on social media. The other leaders who appear on the screen are Hardik Patel, former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani.

A side by side comparison of the viral image and original screengrab is given below. The differences between the two are clear. 

The Times of India uploaded the video of this broadcast to YouTube on December 18, 2017. The video report discusses the results of the 2017 Assembly polls held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

The results of the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat were declared on December 18, 2017. The BJP secured 99 seats, whereas the Congress won 77 seats. The results of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections were also released on the same day, in which the BJP won 44 seats, and the number of seats that the Congress got was 21.

To sum it up, a screengrab of a Times Now broadcast from the 2017 Gujarat-Himachal Assembly elections was edited and falsely shared as recent. Many Congress supporters shared it in praise of Rahul Gandhi.

Update: The detail about the image being doctored has been added to this article later.

The post Morphed image: 2017 Times Now graphic edited to show Rahul ahead of Modi appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

BJP supporter Prabha Upadhyay tweeted the visuals and wrote, “Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leaders coming out fully drunk from a local bar in Kerala during Bar Jodo Yatra.” (Archived link)

BarJodoYatra
Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leaders coming out fully drunk from a local bar in kerala during Bar jodo yathra. https://t.co/frCYGlLP86 pic.twitter.com/2m6rCaoMZ0

— Prabha Upadhyay@BJP (@PrabhaUpadhya21) September 21, 2022

Rishi Bagree, another BJP supporter, also amplified the footage and wrote that the leaders were all intoxicated and inebriated. (Archived link)

Fellow BJP supporter and right wing handle @BefittingFacts also shared the video, adding, “Are they coming drunk at Bharat Jodo Yatra?” (Archived link)

Similarly, numerous social media users posted the video and claimed that Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders were seen coming out of a bar and were intoxicated while on the road for the Bharat Jodo Yatra. 

Fact-check 

We spoke to other Congress leaders who were present when the photo was being taken. They informed Alt News that they were recorded while walking out of an eatery named ‘Malabar Restaurant’ in Kerala’s Kollam district, where they had gone to have dinner.

Based on this information, we reached out to the manager of the aforementioned restaurant. He revealed that Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders had come to dine at the restaurant. The manager clarified that the establishment was not a bar and did not serve liquor. Along with this, he also sent us the CCTV footage from the same night. The clip clearly shows that Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders were simply having food while seated at the table.

Congress leader Pawan Khera posted a tweet warning Rishi Bagree, who had shared the video out of context, of legal action.

To sum it up, a number of social media users, including several BJP supporters, falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders were seen leaving a bar in an inebriated state during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. In reality, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leaders seen with him were coming out of Malabar restaurant in Kerala after having dinner.

The post No, viral video doesn’t show Rahul and Cong leaders inebriated during Bharat Jodo Yatra appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Filmmaker and BJP supporter Ashoke Pandit tweeted the video and wrote that Rahul Gandhi, who had donned a janeu in the past, was now refusing to do the aarti. (Archived link)

BJP supporter and columnist Himanshu Jain also tweeted the clip, saying, “This is how selective Hindus, who secure votes by appeasing the Hindu and Muslims vote banks, are exposed. They do not even know how to perform the aarti for the mother goddess.” It is worth noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows Jain on Twitter. (Archived link)

Another user tweeted this video and wrote that Rahul Gandhi was not singing bhajans and then refused to perform the aarti. (Archived link)

Several other Twitter users amplified the video with the same claim. It is widespread on social media platforms.

Fact-check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the viral video. This led us to a longer version of the viral clip posted on a Facebook page titled ‘With RG‘. It is seen here that after performing the aarti, Rahul Gandhi hands over the aarti thali to Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, who is standing next to him. This 52 second video was uploaded on September 27, 2017. The caption reads, “Rahul Gandhi at Garba Pandal in Rajkot.” Scenes from the viral video appear between the 0:29 and 0:52-minute mark. Since Rahul Gandhi had already performed the aarti, he was not handed the aarti thali later on.

Using this information as a clue, Alt News performed a keyword search on Twitter. We found a tweet by India Today journalist Supriya Bhardwaj dated September 27, 2017. Here, Rahul Gandhi can be seen performing the aarti. This is visible only in the first frame of the video. In other words, the source video has been cropped and is being shared with a misleading claim.

#RahulGandhi performed puja at Garba pandal in Rajkot .@aajtak .@SATAVRAJEEV .@BharatSolankee .@sushmitadevmp .@IndiaToday .@shaktisinhgohil pic.twitter.com/PCbHztqRCu

— Supriya Bhardwaj (@Supriya23bh) September 26, 2017

Congress leader Saral Patel shared the following photographs on Twitter on September 27, 2017. 

Rahul Gandhi ends with Aarti & blessings of Ambe Maa at Navratri Pandal, Neel City, Rajkot! pic.twitter.com/nga9GFP1Zo

— Saral Patel #BharatJodoYatra (@SaralPatel) September 26, 2017

To sum up, filmmaker Ashoke Pandit and BJP supporter Himanshu Jain among other users shared an old, clipped video of Rahul Gandhi with the false claim that the Congress leader refused to perform the aarti for Hindu deity Durga. 

The post Did Rahul refuse to perform ‘aarti’ to Hindu deity Durga? Clipped video shared with false claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

BJP’s head of  Delhi IT cell  Puneet Agarwal tweeted the picture of Rahul Gandhi with the girl, and reiterated the claims made by other members of the party.

BJP party worker Ashutosh Dubey followed suit. (Archive link)

A hashtag search of Bharat Jodo Yatra showed the same picture of Rahul Gandhi tweeted by a user on September 21, 2022.  The user, in a congratulatory message, mentioned the name of the girl seen with Rahul Gandhi as Miva Andrelio.

The post Girl seen with Rahul Gandhi in viral pic is not the one who had shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

It is worth noting under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party is conducting the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari. The five-month padyatra will witness the leaders passing through 12 Indian states, culminating in Kashmir. 

In this video of Smriti Irani’s speech on YOYO TV Kannada’s YouTube channel, she remarks at the 46:45 mark, “Today I want to ask the Congress party something. You claim you are traveling to bring India together. If you commenced your journey from Kanyakumari, you should have had the decency to pay respects to Swami Vivekananda. But Rahul Gandhi couldn’t do that either because Swami Vivekananda is a national saint, not a member of the Gandhi family.

Fact-check

Alt News noticed that Congress party’s official media platform INC TV and several Congress leaders had shared a video of Rahul Gandhi, and called Smriti Irani’s statement false. In the clip, he is seen paying his respects to Swami Vivekananda and bowing to his statue. Along with the video, Congress leaders also shared a tweet by news agency ANI covering Gandhi’s visit to the Vivekananda Memorial. Congress leader Srinivas BV shared the video calling Smriti Irani a liar.

Chal Jhoothi…
इतना ‘Silly’ झूठ बोलते हुए शर्म नही आती? pic.twitter.com/CrRuBwIo4G

— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) September 12, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Other Congress leaders also mentioned the tweet by ANI along with the clip. It details Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Vivekananda Memorial in Kanyakumari on September 7, i.e. ahead of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

Tamil Nadu | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi visits Vivekananda Memorial in Kanyakumari ahead of #BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/RnHfZAbSfG

— ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The same video was also uploaded to the Congress party’s YouTube channel on September 7. Here, Rahul Gandhi is seen circumambulating the statue of Swami Vivekananda at the memorial.

To sum it up, BJP leader Smriti Irani in her speech falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi did not pay his respects to Swami Vivekananda before commencing the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari.

The post Smriti Irani makes false claim that Rahul didn’t pay respects at Kanyakumari before Bharat Jodo Yatra appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya tweeted this short clip of Rahul Gandhi and wrote, “If Rahul Gandhi’s prater were not puerile, they would be deeply dangerous.” (Archived link)

If Rahul Gandhi’s prater weren’t puerile, they would be deeply dangerous… pic.twitter.com/QISIDV3xTn

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 5, 2022

BJP worker Priti Gandhi also amplified this clip and added that Rahul Gandhi is fighting against the entire infrastructure of India. (Archived link)

राहुल गांधी हिंदुस्तान के पूरे इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर के खिलाफ लड़ रहे हैं!

ऐसा मैं नहीं, वे स्वयं कह रहे हैं!! pic.twitter.com/svbsWmsHpP

— Priti Gandhi – प्रीति गांधी (@MrsGandhi) August 5, 2022

BJP Delhi treasurer Visshnu Mittal also made a similar claim while tweeting the video. (Archived link)

स्वाभाविक है राहुल गांधी कि आपको देश का विकास नहीं सुहाता। चीन से एमओयू साइन करने वाले को भला भारत का इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर क्यों अच्छा लगेगा। आप लड़िए देश के इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर के खिलाफ, देश आपको इस लायक छोड़ेगा ही नहीं कि आपके कुछ करने से कुछ फर्क पड़ सके। pic.twitter.com/jtBGrqBBZ4

— Visshnu Mittal (@visshnumittal) August 5, 2022 

Similarly, many social media handles including BJP Maharashtra, Maldhari Sena Gujarat president Dinesh Desai, and author Ravi Ranjan tweeted this video with the same claim.

Fact-check

Alt News closely examined Rahul Gandhi’s YouTube channel to gather more information on this video. The full video of this press conference was uploaded on Rahul Gandhi’s YouTube channel on August 4. We listened to the press conference in its entirety.

Responding to a question asked at the 11:30 minute mark, Rahul says, “The opposition that fights in democracy fights on the strength of the institution. This means that the opposition derives its power from the country’s legal structure, judicial structure, electoral structure, and the media. All these institutions are giving full support to the government. Why? Because the government has installed its own workers inside these institutions. Today, not a single institution in India is independent. Today, every institution in India is under RSS control. Every institution has at least one RSS member sitting inside these institutions. So, we are not fighting a single political party, we are fighting against India’s entire infrastructure. When Congress was in power, the infrastructure was neutral, we did not control the infrastructure. Two or three political parties would compete against each other. Today, the infrastructure belongs to the government, it belongs entirely to one party. The country’s financial infrastructure belongs to them. If anyone wants to support another political party, they are threatened and intimidated by bodies like the ED and CBI. Then there is the financial monopoly held by the BJP and the institutional monopoly of the RSS. That’s why the opposition is effectively and aggressively coming forward, but the impact that this should have had is not visible.”

Evidently, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya and various other BJP supporters took a small clip from Rahul Gandhi’s press briefing and shared it out of context. This is not the first time that the BJP IT cell in-charge has been found spreading misleading information. In the past, Alt News has debunked many instances of Amit Malviya sharing false information.

The post Clipped video of Rahul Gandhi’s press conference amplified by BJP leaders appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Sharing these videos, it has been claimed that Kashmiri Pandits living abroad asked Rahul Gandhi why he was opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Kashmir issue. Twitter user Nikhil Rajput tweeted the video with this claim. (Archive link)

विदेश में रह रहे कश्मीरी पंडितों ने हवाई जहाज में यात्रा के दौरान Rahul Gandhi को घेर कर सवाल पूछे कि वो कश्मीर के मामलों पर मोदी का विरोध क्यों करते हैं?

इसका कोई जवाब राहुल गांधी नहीं दे पाया, राष्ट्रीय मीडिया शायद ही ये न्यूज़ दिखा पाए। pic.twitter.com/mgXRnXMvnk

— Nikhil Rajput (@Nikhilrajput21) July 1, 2022

Twitter handle ‘@AshishK_BJP’ also amplified the video and accompanying claim. (Archive link)

हवाई यात्रा के दौरान विदेश में रह रहे कश्मीरी पंडितों ने हवाई जहाज में @RahulGandhi को घेर कर सवाल पूछे कि वो कश्मीर के मामलों पर प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी का विरोध क्यों करते हैं..!!

देखिये कोई जबाव नहीं दे पाए कांग्रेस के राजकुमार..!! pic.twitter.com/IvZQOcpsPa

— Ashish kaushik (@AshishK_BJP) July 1, 2022

Dainik Bhaskar Jaipur editor Doonger Singh also shared the clip. (Archive link)

#राहुलजी_को_कश्मीरी_पंडितों_का_दर्द
समझ आया ही होगा। क्योंकि उनके पङदादा कश्मीर से ही थे
विदेश में रह रहे कश्मीरी पंडितों ने हवाई जहाज में यात्रा के दौरान @RahulGandhi
को घेर कर सवाल पूछे कि वो कश्मीर के मामलों पर मोदी का विरोध क्यों करते हैं।
@BJP4JnK @vivekagnihotri @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/HAr1MSRTqT

— Doonger Singh (@dsrajpurohit291) July 1, 2022

RSS mouthpiece Organiser Weekly, film director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, RSS Hindi weekly magazine Panchjanya, BJP Delhi spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat, Panchjanya social media coordinator Shivam Dixit, and BJP-affiliated Dr Abhilash Pandey were also among those who tweeted the video with a similar claim.

The footage is widespread on Facebook and Twitter.

Fact-check

Alt News fact-checked this video back in August 2019 when it was circulating with a similar claim on social media.

An NDTV report dated August 26, 2019 states that the video was shot after Rahul Gandhi’s tour of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government repealed the provisions of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. Following this, local leaders were detained in Jammu and Kashmir and internet services were also shut down. Rahul Gandhi had flown to the valley at that time to meet with locals but was forced to return from Srinagar Airport. Meanwhile, a woman on his flight from Srinagar began talking with Gandhi, sharing the plight of the Kashmiri people. Scenes from the viral video appear at the 1:19 mark in the report below.

This video was tweeted by journalist Arun Kumar Singh of News18 on August 24, 2019. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also targeted the Indian government while retweeting Singh’s post.

How long is this going to continue?This is one out of millions of people who are being silenced and crushed in the name of “Nationalism”.

For those who accuse the opposition of ‘politicising’ this issue: https://t.co/IMLmnTtbLb

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 25, 2019

To sum it up, this video is from August 2019 when Section 370 was repealed in Jammu and Kashmir. The video features a woman telling Rahul Gandhi about the challenges faced by the people of Kashmir. It has now been shared with the false claim that she was questioning Gandhi’s opposition to PM Modi on the Kashmir issue.

The post Did this woman criticise Rahul Gandhi for opposing PM Modi on Kashmir issue? appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

On July 1, Zee News aired a video of Rahul Gandhi and claimed that he referred to the accused in the Udaipur murder as “children”. The channel also tweeted the footage, but later deleted the post. In the clip, anchor Rohit Ranjan can be heard saying, “People from all corners of the country feel this crime is barbaric, wrong, and the accused should receive a severe punishment. Being the senior-most leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi’s words matter a lot. But what message does it send if Rahul Gandhi himself is calling the accused ‘children’? Was Kanhaiya’s murderer, someone who killed him so brutally, a child?”

Several BJP leaders, journalists, and social media users amplified the video, criticising Gandhi. Most of these people promoted the claim while sharing the Zee News clip.

Kannauj BJP MP Subrata Pathak tweeted a video of Rahul Gandhi claiming that he called the accused “children” who somehow mistakenly committed a murder. (Archive link)

In a now-deleted tweet, former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajvardhan Rathore also shared the video claiming that Rahul Gandhi had called terrorists “children”.

MLA Kamlesh Saini, from Bijnor district’s Chandpur constituency, made the same claim while tweeting the video. (Archive link)

Those who circulated the video also included BJP spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat, BJP supporter Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, Himanshu Mishra, Sagar Kumar of Sudarshan News, Zee Rajasthan anchor Qamar, and Nishant Azad, who is affiliated with RSS mouthpiece Organizer, among others.

Fact-check

Alt News noticed that Congress leaders were insisting that the viral claim was fake. Many users replied to the viral tweets stating that Rahul Gandhi was actually referring to those who vandalised the Congress office in Kerala as “children”.

Taking a closer look at the viral video, we saw a mic belonging to the news agency ANI. When we searched through ANI’s tweets, we found a frame from the same video. In this clip, Rahul Gandhi was giving a statement on an incident of vandalism at his Wayanad office.

Kerala | It is the office of the people of Wayanad. It’s unfortunate what happened. Violence never resolves problems.People who did this acted in an irresponsible way. I don’t have any hostility towards them: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the incident of vandalism at his office pic.twitter.com/PgjiCLUXeG

— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2022

Mics from a few regional media outlets are also visible in the viral clip. We performed a search on YouTube by translating some keywords related to Rahul Gandhi and his office into Malayalam. This led us to the full-length video on Manorama News’s YouTube channel. The Congress leader is saying that the young men who vandalized his office were “children”. He added that the boys acted irresponsibly and that what happened was unfortunate.

To sum it up, Zee News falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi called the Udaipur murderers “children”. Following this, a number of BJP leaders, journalists, and social media users amplified the claim on social media. In reality, Rahul Gandhi was actually referring to the young men who vandalized his party’s office in Wayanad. Workers representing student organization SFI were allegedly behind the attack on the Congress office.

Zee News acknowledged the error after Alt News Hindi published an article debunking the claim.

कल हमारे शो DNA में राहुल गांधी का बयान उदयपुर की घटना से जोड़ कर ग़लत संदर्भ में चल गया था, ये एक मानवीय भूल थी जिसके लिए हमारी टीम क्षमाप्रार्थी हैं, हम इसके लिए खेद जताते हैं pic.twitter.com/YGs7kfbKKi

— Rohit Ranjan (@irohitr) July 2, 2022

The post Zee News falsely claimed Rahul Gandhi termed Udaipur murderers “children” appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

On July 1, Zee News aired a video of Rahul Gandhi and claimed that he referred to the accused in the Udaipur murder as “children”. The channel also tweeted the footage, but later deleted the post. In the clip, anchor Rohit Ranjan can be heard saying, “People from all corners of the country feel this crime is barbaric, wrong, and the accused should receive a severe punishment. Being the senior-most leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi’s words matter a lot. But what message does it send if Rahul Gandhi himself is calling the accused ‘children’? Was Kanhaiya’s murderer, someone who killed him so brutally, a child?”

Several BJP leaders, journalists, and social media users amplified the video, criticising Gandhi. Most of these people promoted the claim while sharing the Zee News clip.

Kannauj BJP MP Subrata Pathak tweeted a video of Rahul Gandhi claiming that he called the accused “children” who somehow mistakenly committed a murder. (Archive link)

In a now-deleted tweet, former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajvardhan Rathore also shared the video claiming that Rahul Gandhi had called terrorists “children”.

MLA Kamlesh Saini, from Bijnor district’s Chandpur constituency, made the same claim while tweeting the video. (Archive link)

Those who circulated the video also included BJP spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat, BJP supporter Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, Himanshu Mishra, Sagar Kumar of Sudarshan News, Zee Rajasthan anchor Qamar, and Nishant Azad, who is affiliated with RSS mouthpiece Organizer, among others.

Fact-check

Alt News noticed that Congress leaders were insisting that the viral claim was fake. Many users replied to the viral tweets stating that Rahul Gandhi was actually referring to those who vandalised the Congress office in Kerala as “children”.

Taking a closer look at the viral video, we saw a mic belonging to the news agency ANI. When we searched through ANI’s tweets, we found a frame from the same video. In this clip, Rahul Gandhi was giving a statement on an incident of vandalism at his Wayanad office.

Kerala | It is the office of the people of Wayanad. It’s unfortunate what happened. Violence never resolves problems.People who did this acted in an irresponsible way. I don’t have any hostility towards them: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the incident of vandalism at his office pic.twitter.com/PgjiCLUXeG

— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2022

Mics from a few regional media outlets are also visible in the viral clip. We performed a search on YouTube by translating some keywords related to Rahul Gandhi and his office into Malayalam. This led us to the full-length video on Manorama News’s YouTube channel. The Congress leader is saying that the young men who vandalized his office were “children”. He added that the boys acted irresponsibly and that what happened was unfortunate.

To sum it up, Zee News falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi called the Udaipur murderers “children”. Following this, a number of BJP leaders, journalists, and social media users amplified the claim on social media. In reality, Rahul Gandhi was actually referring to the young men who vandalized his party’s office in Wayanad. Workers representing student organization SFI were allegedly behind the attack on the Congress office.

Zee News acknowledged the error after Alt News Hindi published an article debunking the claim.

कल हमारे शो DNA में राहुल गांधी का बयान उदयपुर की घटना से जोड़ कर ग़लत संदर्भ में चल गया था, ये एक मानवीय भूल थी जिसके लिए हमारी टीम क्षमाप्रार्थी हैं, हम इसके लिए खेद जताते हैं pic.twitter.com/YGs7kfbKKi

— Rohit Ranjan (@irohitr) July 2, 2022

The post Zee News falsely claimed Rahul Gandhi termed Udaipur murderers “children” appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

On July 1, Zee News aired a video of Rahul Gandhi and claimed that he referred to the accused in the Udaipur murder as “children”. The channel also tweeted the footage, but later deleted the post. In the clip, anchor Rohit Ranjan can be heard saying, “People from all corners of the country feel this crime is barbaric, wrong, and the accused should receive a severe punishment. Being the senior-most leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi’s words matter a lot. But what message does it send if Rahul Gandhi himself is calling the accused ‘children’? Was Kanhaiya’s murderer, someone who killed him so brutally, a child?”

Several BJP leaders, journalists, and social media users amplified the video, criticising Gandhi. Most of these people promoted the claim while sharing the Zee News clip.

Kannauj BJP MP Subrata Pathak tweeted a video of Rahul Gandhi claiming that he called the accused “children” who somehow mistakenly committed a murder. (Archive link)

In a now-deleted tweet, former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajvardhan Rathore also shared the video claiming that Rahul Gandhi had called terrorists “children”.

MLA Kamlesh Saini, from Bijnor district’s Chandpur constituency, made the same claim while tweeting the video. (Archive link)

Those who circulated the video also included BJP spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat, BJP supporter Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, Himanshu Mishra, Sagar Kumar of Sudarshan News, Zee Rajasthan anchor Qamar, and Nishant Azad, who is affiliated with RSS mouthpiece Organizer, among others.

Fact-check

Alt News noticed that Congress leaders were insisting that the viral claim was fake. Many users replied to the viral tweets stating that Rahul Gandhi was actually referring to those who vandalised the Congress office in Kerala as “children”.

Taking a closer look at the viral video, we saw a mic belonging to the news agency ANI. When we searched through ANI’s tweets, we found a frame from the same video. In this clip, Rahul Gandhi was giving a statement on an incident of vandalism at his Wayanad office.

Kerala | It is the office of the people of Wayanad. It’s unfortunate what happened. Violence never resolves problems.People who did this acted in an irresponsible way. I don’t have any hostility towards them: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the incident of vandalism at his office pic.twitter.com/PgjiCLUXeG

— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2022

Mics from a few regional media outlets are also visible in the viral clip. We performed a search on YouTube by translating some keywords related to Rahul Gandhi and his office into Malayalam. This led us to the full-length video on Manorama News’s YouTube channel. The Congress leader is saying that the young men who vandalized his office were “children”. He added that the boys acted irresponsibly and that what happened was unfortunate.

To sum it up, Zee News falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi called the Udaipur murderers “children”. Following this, a number of BJP leaders, journalists, and social media users amplified the claim on social media. In reality, Rahul Gandhi was actually referring to the young men who vandalized his party’s office in Wayanad. Workers representing student organization SFI were allegedly behind the attack on the Congress office.

Zee News acknowledged the error after Alt News Hindi published an article debunking the claim.

कल हमारे शो DNA में राहुल गांधी का बयान उदयपुर की घटना से जोड़ कर ग़लत संदर्भ में चल गया था, ये एक मानवीय भूल थी जिसके लिए हमारी टीम क्षमाप्रार्थी हैं, हम इसके लिए खेद जताते हैं pic.twitter.com/YGs7kfbKKi

— Rohit Ranjan (@irohitr) July 2, 2022

The post Zee News falsely claimed Rahul Gandhi termed Udaipur murderers “children” appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

On the evening of Friday, May 13, a group of teenagers stabbed Chowdhury, executive editor of the privately owned daily newspaper Dainik Agrabani Pratidin, in the central city of Narayanganj, according to news reports. The teenagers also stabbed Uddin when he attempted to intervene, according to those sources.

Separately, on the morning of May 8, the brother of a local shark oil factory owner assaulted Nihad, Mahajan, and Halim, respectively chief reporter, reporter, and camera operator with the privately owned news website Territorial News, while the three were reporting on alleged shark product smuggling in the southeast city of Cox’s Bazar, according to the Dhaka Tribune and Nihad, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Nihad told CPJ that a local businessman had threatened the three journalists while reporting in the area the day before.

“Bangladesh authorities cannot allow these wanton attacks on journalists in Narayanganj and Cox’s Bazar to go unpunished,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Assaulting journalists amounts to a fundamental attack on the Bangladeshi people’s right to information. Authorities must conduct swift and impartial investigations into both incidents, hold the perpetrators accountable, and prioritize the safety of journalists.”

On May 13, Chowdhury was returning home when a group of teenagers blocked his path and stabbed him in the right side of his abdomen and his hand, according to news reports. The teenagers accused Chowdhury of publishing news critical of them in Dainik Agrabani Pratidin, which had reported on a clash between two armed teenage gangs, according to those sources. The teenagers stabbed Uddin when he attempted to help Chowdhury, according to those sources.

The teenagers fled the scene when locals arrived upon hearing screams, according to those sources, which said that Chowdhury and Uddin received treatment at a local hospital following the incident. CPJ was unable to determine the full extent of Chowdhury and Uddin’s injuries. Chowdhury did not respond to CPJ’s call and WhatsApp message requesting comment. CPJ was unable to identify contact details for Uddin.

The Bangladesh national police did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on the Narayangaj attack, and CPJ could not locate contact details for the Narayangai police.

Syed Sifat Al Rahman, general secretary of the Narayangaj City Press Club, told the Dhaka Tribune that police had inspected the location of the incident, but had not yet registered a case against the attackers. Rahman did not respond to CPJ’s call and WhatsApp message requesting comment.

In a separate incident, on the morning of May 8, Nihad, Mahajan, and Halim were filming outside a shark oil factory in Cox’s Bazar when Mostaq Ahmed, the brother of the factory’s owner, ran in front of Nihad, grabbed his throat and choked him, slapped him against his ear, pushed him into a wall, and broke his phone, according to Nihad and a photo of the incident he provided to CPJ, published above.

Ahmed then charged toward Hakim, grabbed him to restrain him from filming, pushed him against the wall, and broke his camera, Nihad said, adding that Ahmed also pushed Mahajan during the incident. 

Ahmed fled the scene when locals arrived, Nihad said, adding that police arrived at the scene within around 10 minutes. 

Nihad told CPJ that his throat and the back of his head were in serious pain from the incident, and he sought medical attention at a local hospital. Salim sustained scratches, but Mahajan was not physically injured, Nihad said.

Nihad told CPJ that on May 7, the day before the attack, Gura Mia, a local businessman with ties to the factory and an alleged shark product smuggling racket, threatened Nihad, Mahajan, and Halim while they were reporting in the area. Mia told the three journalists that if he caught them in the area again, he would “cut up [their] bodies and throw them in the ocean,” according to Nihad.

On May 9, Sadar Model police station registered a first information report, which opens an investigation, against the factory owner, Ahmed, and Mia in relation to the assault, according to Nihad and a copy of the report, which CPJ reviewed. The report accuses the three of wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt, attempt to murder, theft, and criminal intimidation.

Nihad told CPJ that police conducted raids in the Cox’s Bazar area on the night of May 8, but were unable to find the three accused, who have since gone into hiding.

Mia did not respond to CPJ’s text message requesting comment. CPJ was unable to identify contact details for Ahmed. CPJ was not able to locate public statements by Mia or Ahmed regarding their alleged role in the assault. 

Mohammad Abdul Halim, the investigating officer in the case, and Sheikh Monirul Gias, the officer-in-charge of the Sadar Model police station, did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

A video of Gandhi, in the company of a woman, at a nightclub in Nepal was widely shared by several BJP leaders and supporters with the claim that the woman is Hou Yanqi, the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal. It is worth noting that amid escalating border dispute between India and Nepal in 2020, the latter accused Indian media of running false “propaganda” against Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Nepal banned private Indian news channels a day after Zee News suggested Oli had close ties with Hou Yanqi.

Kapil Mishra of the BJP shared the video and wrote, “Who is this with Rahul Gandhi? This is not a personal matter. Is he siding with the Chinese agents? Does Rahul Gandhi post tweets against the army due to pressure from China? Questions will be raised. This isn’t just about Rahul Gandhi, but the country at large.” (Archive link)

ये राहुल गांधी की निजी जिंदगी का मामला नहीं

राहुल गांधी किसके साथ है? क्या चाइना के एजेंटों के साथ हैं? क्या राहुल गांधी जो ट्वीट करते है सेना के खिलाफ वो चाइना के दबाव में करते है ?

सवाल तो पूछे जाएंगे ?

सवाल राहुल गांधी का नहीं, देश का हैं https://t.co/dNmzqFo36L

— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) May 3, 2022

Sai Prasad, Treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, also tweeted the video, identifying the woman with Rahul Gandhi as Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi. (Archive link)

Rahul Gandhi with Hou Yanqi (Chinese ambassador to Nepal). She earlier honey trapped Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli . pic.twitter.com/EuH6AXFNXX

— PM Sai Prasad (@pm_saiprasad) May 3, 2022

Rajya Sabha MP Vijaysai Reddy further amplified the claim. (Archive link)

Video of @RahulGandhi partying in a Nepal night club with Chinese diplomats is disturbing as China’s honey traps are rising. Hou Yanqi,Chinese Ambassador to Nepal also spotted with him.Congress unnecessarily questions @NarendraModi Ji’s Europe trip while its own leader does this!

— Vijayasai Reddy V (@VSReddy_MP) May 3, 2022

So did BJP supporter Surendra Poonia. (Archive link)

कांग्रेस को बताना होगा कि क्या राहुल गाँधी जी चीन की नेपाल में राजदूत Miss Hou Yanqi के साथ पार्टी कर रहे हैं ?

वो अपनी निजी ज़िंदगी में कुछ भी करें पर अगर वो चीनी राजदूत के साथ हैं तो भारतीय नागरिक होने के नाते हमें मंज़ूर नहीं है ! pic.twitter.com/UgbWoBIQ6V

— Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) May 3, 2022

Right-wing account Hawk Eye, BJP Delhi chief Ajay Sehrawat, BJP supporter and journalist Taruni Gandhi, BJP supporter Rishi Bagree, BJP worker Harish Khurana, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Naresh Balyan, RSS mouthpiece journalist Shivam Dixit, fake news portal Postcard News founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde and V Patel were some others who claimed that Gandhi was spotted at a nightclub in Nepal with Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi.

Fact-check

After performing a few keyword searches on Facebook, we came across a post by Nepali user Bhupen Kunwar. Dated April 2, Kunwar has shared two videos of Rahul Gandhi and claimed he was at ‘Lord of the Drinks’.

Alt News reached out to the management of the club and was informed that no Chinese diplomat visited their premises. The woman seen with Rahul Gandhi in the video was actually a guest of the bride/groom and she had arrived with them at the nightclub.

We then spoke with Samyak Udas, brother of bride Sumnima Udas. He explained that the woman has been friends with his sister since they were in Hong Kong. Samyak added that although he informed the woman about the viral claim, she does not wish to be identified. Alt News has independently verified the woman’s identity.

Writer and activist Kanak Mani Dixit who was an attendee at the wedding reception on April 5 shared more details about the woman with the help of a source close to the bride’s family. He identified the woman in the video as a former journalist working with CNN in Hong Kong. She currently works as a scriptwriter outside of Hong Kong.

To sum it up, the woman seen in a viral video with Rahul Gandhi inside a nightclub is not Hou Yanqi, the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal. She is a friend of Sumnima Udas, whose wedding Gandhi was attending in Nepal. BJP leaders, supporters, and several others circulated false claims on social media accusing Rahul Gandhi of meeting the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal.

The post No, Rahul Gandhi is NOT with Chinese Ambassador to Nepal in this video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Gandhi can be heard saying in the video, “Aaj baarish thi, aapko kasht bhi huwa hoga, iske liye bohot bohot dhanyawad.” (It rained today and you have faced trouble. Thank you for this.)

The video is extremely viral on Twitter. Among those who tweeted it were @Humor_Silly, @Wake_Up_Mitron and @jayeshforreal3.

Baarish thi, aapko kasht hua uske liye dhanyawad – Rahul pic.twitter.com/y9qjJVT6iO

— Hardik (@Humor_Silly) February 21, 2022

Ye Pappu damaged beyond repair hai. Abhi bol raha hai ki aaj baarish thi, aapko kasht hua, uske liye dhanyavaad. Kal bolega: Mere Pappu samaj walon main moorkh hoon aur aap mahanoorkh hain, iske liye dhanyavaad!!

pic.twitter.com/s1hTOG45Pj

— Pankaj Mishra (@Wake_Up_Mitron) February 21, 2022

Baarish thi, aapko kasht hua uske liye dhanyawad – Rahul pic.twitter.com/EpIPzHEN5d

— jayesh (@jayeshforreal3) February 21, 2022

The video is also viral on Facebook with both Hindi and English captions. Most people have laugh-reacted on the posts.

Clipped video

We checked Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter timeline and found that he had shared a live feed of a public meeting at Hapta Kangjeibung, Imphal. Ten seconds of this feed were circulated on social media to mock Gandhi.

To understand the full context, one needs to play the video from 26:53 minutes when Rahul Gandhi starts to conclude his speech. He begins by thanking the public for coming to his rally from far off places. Next, at 27:03 minutes, he says that they must have faced difficulties due to the rain and he’s grateful that they managed to come despite the conditions. He ends the speech with “Namaskar” and “Jai Hind”.

Live: Public Meeting at Hapta Kangjeibung, Imphal.#Manipur https://t.co/uKQztz9zt1

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 21, 2022

Hence, a clipped video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Manipur was shared to mock him.

The post Clipped video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Manipur shared to mock him appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

Gandhi can be heard saying in the video, “Aaj baarish thi, aapko kasht bhi huwa hoga, iske liye bohot bohot dhanyawad.” (It rained today and you have faced trouble. Thank you for this.)

The video is extremely viral on Twitter. Among those who tweeted it were @Humor_Silly, @Wake_Up_Mitron and @jayeshforreal3.

Baarish thi, aapko kasht hua uske liye dhanyawad – Rahul pic.twitter.com/y9qjJVT6iO

— Hardik (@Humor_Silly) February 21, 2022

Ye Pappu damaged beyond repair hai. Abhi bol raha hai ki aaj baarish thi, aapko kasht hua, uske liye dhanyavaad. Kal bolega: Mere Pappu samaj walon main moorkh hoon aur aap mahanoorkh hain, iske liye dhanyavaad!!

pic.twitter.com/s1hTOG45Pj

— Pankaj Mishra (@Wake_Up_Mitron) February 21, 2022

Baarish thi, aapko kasht hua uske liye dhanyawad – Rahul pic.twitter.com/EpIPzHEN5d

— jayesh (@jayeshforreal3) February 21, 2022

The video is also viral on Facebook with both Hindi and English captions. Most people have laugh-reacted on the posts.

Clipped video

We checked Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter timeline and found that he had shared a live feed of a public meeting at Hapta Kangjeibung, Imphal. Ten seconds of this feed were circulated on social media to mock Gandhi.

To understand the full context, one needs to play the video from 26:53 minutes when Rahul Gandhi starts to conclude his speech. He begins by thanking the public for coming to his rally from far off places. Next, at 27:03 minutes, he says that they must have faced difficulties due to the rain and he’s grateful that they managed to come despite the conditions. He ends the speech with “Namaskar” and “Jai Hind”.

Live: Public Meeting at Hapta Kangjeibung, Imphal.#Manipur https://t.co/uKQztz9zt1

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 21, 2022

Hence, a clipped video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Manipur was shared to mock him.

The post Clipped video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Manipur shared to mock him appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.