Fact-Check: Rahul Gandhi Called Puri Rath Yatra 'Drama'? No, Video Is Clipped!

He took a jibe at Adani and his family who visited Odisha at the time of the festival.

Fact-Check: Gandhi took a jibe at the Adani family and not the religious event.

(Source: The Quint) 

A video is going viral on social media showing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressing a public meeting, where he allegedly called the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath in Puri, Odisha, a ‘drama’.

What does he say?: "When Jagannath Yatra takes place in Odisha, just think, just think, a rath comes out, a rath of Jagannath Yatra comes out, lakhs of people watch it and follow it, and then a drama happens, a drama happens."

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X)

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

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is misleading.

• In the longer version of the video, Gandhi took a jibe at industrialist Gautam Adani and his family for whom the rath was allegedly halted amid the event.

What we found: We performed a relevant keyword search which led us to the longer version of the viral video.

• It was broadcasted on the Indian National Congress YouTube channel on 11 July, titled “LIVE: Shri Mallikarjun Kharge & Shri Rahul Gandhi | Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh | Bhubaneswar, Odisha.” (sic.)

• We, then, tried to identify part of the viral video in Congress's YouTube video.

• The portion starts from 26:00 minutes onwards. We heard the part and noted that Gandhi was not demeaning the attendees of the Rath Yatra.

• At 26:35 minutes, Gandhi mentioned the part about the, 'drama'.

What did Gandhi say?:

"When Jagannath Yatra takes place in Odisha, just think, a rath comes out, a rath of Jagannath Yatra comes out, lakhs of people watch it and follow it, and then a drama happens, a drama happens. The rath is stopped for Adani ji and his family. You can understand everything about Odisha's government. This is not your government, this is not Odisha's government. This is the government of Adani and five to six other such industrialists."

• We also found news reports by the Times of India and the New Indian Express about this remark which noted Gandhi’s statement regarding the rath being stopped for Adani, and his claim that corporates like Adani were governing the state.

• As per a NDTV report from 28 June, the industrialist's family attended the religious event in Puri.

Conclusion: A video of Gandhi has been taken out of context to falsely claim that he called the attendees of the rath yatra a 'drama.'

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