Did Rahul Gandhi Make Offensive Statements About Women at Chhatron Ki Goonj? No!

We found out that the video has been cropped and edited.

A video was shared on social media, falsely claiming to show Rahul Gandhi making offensive statements about women.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A video was shared on social media, claiming to show Rahul Gandhi making offensive statements about women and how women themselves are the reason for their sexual assault.

What did he say?: In the video, Rahul Gandhi says, "80% of rapes happen because of women. Rape happens in India, and rape does not happen in Bharat. A girl belongs in one place; she should be locked in a cage. She should be under control. She should not work. And boys should have complete freedom." (translated from Hindi to English)

An archived version of this claim can be found here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Is it true?: No, the video has been cropped and edited. In the full version of the video, he attributes the regressive statements to other politicians.

How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens and found multiple reports sharing visuals of Rahul Gandhi from the same event.

• According to the reports, it shows Rahul Gandhi's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' event that happened in Pune, Maharashtra, on 22 August 2026.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

• Following this, we conducted a keyword search and found a video of the entire event, uploaded to YouTube by the official accounts of Rahul Gandhi and the Indian National Congress (INC).

• At around the 52:12 timestamp, the statements from the viral claim can be heard.

• However, in the full version, Rahul Gandhi can be heard saying, "Mohan Bhagwat says, 'Rape happens in India, and rape does not happen in Bharat.' Khattar ji says, '80% of rapes happen because of women.' So, this is a mindset, and the fight is against this very mindset. The mindset is that a girl belongs in one place; she should be locked in a cage. She should be under control. She should not work. And boys should have complete freedom. (translated from Hindi to English)

• This makes it clear that Rahul Gandhi did not condone the remarks and was instead quoting other people.

Conclusion: The video has been edited, and in the full version of the video, he attributes the regressive statements to other politicians.

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