Clip of Rahul Gandhi Calling Bharat Mata ‘Unparliamentary’ Viral Without Context

Gandhi was speaking about his statement about Bharat Mata being expunged from the Parliament's records.

A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying 'Bharat Mata is unparliamentary' has gone viral on social media without context, misleading users.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video of Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi walking out a building and speaking to the press is being shared on social media.

What does he say?: In the video, a media person asks Gandhi, "Sir, words from your speech were expunged yesterday also..."

• To this, Gandhi says, "Yes, apparently Bharat Mata is a unparliamentary word in India nowadays."

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The clip is being shared without context.

• Rahul Gandhi's statement dates back to 10 August 2023, a day after some of his remarks from his speech during the No Confidence Motion in Parliament were expunged.

• Speaking to the media, Gandhi confirmed that his remarks were expunged. One of the removed statements included a remark by Gandhi, where he said "Bharat Mata was murdered..."

How did we find out the truth?: We ran keyword search using the term 'Rahul Gandhi Bharat Mata unparliamentary" on Google.

This took us to a YouTube video on The Print's verified channel, which was uploaded on 10 August 2023.

The video carried the same statement, noting that "He said this when asked about the words from his speech in Lok Sabha expunged."

We came across more news reports about this statement, published a day after his speech on 9 August.

A report by NDTV which mentioned that Gandhi had "launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government," over the violence in Manipur and alleged that the Centre could stop it, but had not acted upon doing so.

The article was published on 10 August 2023.

(Source: NDTV/Screenshot)

One can hear the speech on Sansad TV's YouTube video of Gandhi's remarks, which is noticeably edited when Gandhi speaks about Manipur and Bharat Mata starting at the 30:51 timestamp.

Here, Gandhi can be heard saying, "...Bharat is the voice of our people, their hearts. That voice was [redacted] in Manipur. This means that Bharat Mata was [redacted] in Manipur."

The video's caption also states that the the video was "edited after certain proceedings of the House were expunged as per the order of the Chair."

A report by India Today provided more context to these edits, mentioning that the parts which had been expunged involved Gandhi saying, "Bharat Mata was murdered in Manipur."

The report said that the word "murder" was expunged from the Parliament's records.

(Source: India Today/Screenshot)

Conclusion: A clip of Rahul Gandhi telling the media that his statement about Bharat Mata being expunged from records because "apparently Bharat Mata is a unparliamentary word" has gone viral without context.

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