Fact-Check: Clipped Video of Rahul Gandhi's Old Speech Shared to Mock the Leader

In the 36-minute original video, the Congress leader spoke about untouchability and atrocities against Dalits.

Fact-Check: The speech was not about Rahul Gandhi's father, but atrocities against Dalits in India. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A three-minute video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's speech where he talks about his father Rajiv Gandhi's 'murderers' is making rounds on social media.

What is the claim?: Users sharing this video have claimed that Gandhi gave an incomprehensible speech which is difficult to understand.

What does Rahul Gandhi say in the video?: Gandhi said that his father was killed and "I did not do it". He said, "When I was at the hospital, I thought that if this had happened to me, I would have killed."

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

What is the truth?: The claim is misleading as it is a clipped video.

• We found the full 36-minute speech of Rahul Gandhi from the book launch of The Dalit Truth by K Raju from April 2022.

How did we find out?: We found the longer version of Gandhi's speech on his official YouTube channel, which was shared on 9 April 2022.

• The speech was about atrocities against Dalits.

• Gandhi also shared an incident of when he met with the father of one of the Dalit boys who were beaten in Una, Gujarat in 2016.

• The Quint noted his interaction with the victim's family in 2016.

• Rahul Gandhi described an anecdote of the time when he met with the father of one of the boys who were mercilessly beaten in Una. During that interaction, he learned that twelve Dalit youth consumed pesticide in Rajkot as a mark of protest.

• He also met the youth in the Rajkot hospital and narrated a conversation he had with one of the protestor's brother.

• We identified the following portions in the original video that were clipped together in the viral video:

• At 33:39 timestamp, Rahul Gandhi said, "If I were in his place and was ready to die, before dying, I would have killed the killer of my brother.”

• At 34:22, Gandhi added, "If my sister was tied up and beaten mercilessly like a dog, I would have killed the person before attempting suicide."

• 34:48 timestamp onwards, Gandhi says, "My father was killed and I did not do it. I have no hatred towards his murderers." This is the portion that is there in the viral video as well. In the original speech, Rahul says, "But when I was in the hospital, I thought that if this had happened to me, I would have killed the person who harmed me."

• He narrated a conversation with one of the protestors, and said, "If I was in your place and I was ready to die by suicide, I would have found out who harmed my brother, taken the knife and stabbed the perpetrator in his chest. His face grew pale, and he questioned what I said. I said that if this happened to my sister, I would have killed the person. However, in turn, he questioned my knowledge and said that if he had killed the perpetrator, he would be born a Dalit in my next life. I was shocked to hear this. I thought to myself that this person has the burden of 1000 lives on his shoulders."

• The portion about Gandhi's father's death has been clipped out of context in the viral video to make him sound incoherent.

Conclusion: The viral video has been edited to make Gandhi sound confused and incomprehensible.

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