Was Rahul Gandhi stumped by a 14-year-old girl at a “private interaction” in Dubai during his two day visit to the UAE?
A report on the news website MyNation says so. The report, dated 13 January, claims the girl asked the Congress president what he would do now if he were in power that couldn’t have been done all the past decades that Congress was at the helm. The report says that in response, Gandhi asked her what she would do as president, and she responded that she would seek votes with the promise of providing “corruption-free” governance rather than talking about caste and religious discrimination (as he does).
The report reads that when the girl made this statement, the crowd broke into applause, leaving the Congress president embarrassed.
Later, the same report was updated with a ‘confirmation’ of this fact from a Congress leader Arathi Krishna, who was part of Gandhi's Dubai entourage.
Gandhi, who was on a two-day visit the UAE, held interactions with university students, people at a labour camp in Dubai and held a public interaction with the Indian disapora.
The Quint reached out to Arathi Krishna to fact-check the claims in the report, and she said that she was misquoted by MyNation and had only told the portal that she was not around at the event but would get back with related information from someone else.
Krishna further denied that there was any private interaction held in Dubai as claimed in the report.
“Whatever addresses and interactions took place, they were all broadcast live. If you sift through the footage, you will see that no question of the sort was ever asked.”Arathi Krishna, Congress leader
Krishna also tweeted about the claim.
Similarly, Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, also denied that any interaction as indicated in the MyNation report ever took place. In a email exchange with The Quint, he said:
“This never happened. I was with RG (Rahul Gandhi) all the time. There is no such thing as Arathi Krishna’s office. It is also a LIE. It is amazing to see how some people can lie and get pleasure and profits out of amplifying, propagating & promoting LIES like this.” (sic)
Meanwhile, Editor of MyNation Abhijit Majumder took to Twitter and said that the portal “stands by its story”.
What Else Did the MyNation Report Allege?
According to the MyNation report, the girl had asked Gandhi two questions:
- “How Rahul, who speaks against caste and religious discrimination, displays his Hindu-ness by applying ashes on his forehead and going to temples in Gujarat and wears the kufis (traditional cap that Muslims wear) while visiting Kashmir?"
- “Congress prides itself for having ruled India for several decades. The welfare and development that were not achieved then, will be done now?”
According to the report, Aarthi Krishna’s office confirmed that Rahul answered the first question by saying that he “treats all religions equally".