Fact Check: Edited Clip From Rahul Gandhi’s Old Interview Viral With Misleading Claim

New Delhi (Vishvas News). A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is going viral on social media. In this video, it is being claimed that when Rahul Gandhi was confronted with a challenging question during an interview, he remained silent and could not answer.

Vishvas News investigated the viral video and found that the video was edited.

What is in the viral post

The Facebook group ‘Senior Citizens Group <60yrs++++++’ posted a 38-second video of Rahul Gandhi on September 12 with the caption, “Please do not laugh after watching this serious interview, it is my humble request”, while on the video it was written, “When you lie too much in the interview and the IO asks the difficult questions”.

Check the archived version of the post here.

Investigation

To investigate the viral video of Rahul Gandhi, Vishvas News first extracted several keyframes of it with the help of the InVID tool. Then we searched these keyframes with the help of the Google Lens tool and found a full video of Rahul Gandhi’s interview with Aaj Tak in 2014. This video was uploaded on Aaj Tak’s YouTube channel on April 13, 2014. The accompanying description read, “In this exclusive interview, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi opens up about the Congress’s 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, the BJP, his prime ministerial aspirations, and much more.”

After watching the entire interview, we came to know that in contrary to what the viral video showed, Rahul Gandhi had not kept mum when asked to elaborate his earlier statement, Instead he had given a complete answer. Different clips have been taken from the video, and have been rearranged to create a misleading narrative which is going viral. In the viral video “Karunga aap dekhoge, chahe result kuchh bhi ho aap dekh lenge, yahi kahenge”(I will do it, you will see, no matter what the result is, you will see, this is what I am saying) part comes at 26:35 minute, while “Main laga hua hoon”(I am into it) comes at 12:23 minute. The part “Laga hua hun main laga rahunga or meri soch hai ki agar ant mein jeetna hai” (I am determined, I will continue to do so and what I am thinking is that if I want to win in the end) is taken from 12:40 minute. The “Ye jo aap jacket pehne hue hain, joote pehne hue hain” (This jacket you are wearing, shoes you are wearing) part is at 13:15 minute in the video, while “Inko badalna hai…………” (These have to be changed…………) part taken from 12:51 minute. Facial gestures at the end of the video are taken from 12:58 minute.

To sum it up, multiple clips from a nine-year-old interview were edited together, altering the context, in an attempt to portray Rahul Gandhi as speaking unintelligibly during the interview.

Taking the investigation forward, Vishvas News contacted Congress National Coordinator Shuja Gandhi. When we shared the viral post with him, he said, “This video is edited and has been made with the intention of spreading false propaganda against Rahul Gandhi. This is the time when the line between true and false information has started blurring, people should be aware and know which people are playing with their emotions by adopting various tactics.”

At the end of the investigation, we scanned the page that posted the fake video. The Facebook page ‘Senior Citizens Group <60yrs++++++’ has more than 3700 followers.