A video (here, here, here and here) of Indian news anchor Arnab Goswami is going viral on social media with the claim that he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not be able to come out of his home after six months and that Indian youth will beat him if he does. Let’s find the truth behind this video.
Claim: The viral video shows Arnab Goswami saying that after six months Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to leave his home and that Indian youth will beat him with sticks if he does.
Fact: The viral video is clipped and taken out of context. In the original broadcast, Arnab Goswami was quoting Rahul Gandhi’s past remarks during a debate, he did not make the statement himself. The portion showing that he was quoting Rahul Gandhi was removed in the viral video, hence the claim is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we did a reverse image search that led to an extended version of the clip published by Republic Bharath. In the full video, Arnab Goswami is seen countering Rahul Gandhi’s “Mohabbat Ki Dukaan” remark and explicitly quoting Rahul Gandhi’s statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “will not come out of his home after six months and youth will beat him.” The viral clip omits the part clarifying that Arnab is quoting Rahul Gandhi, creating a misleading impression that Arnab made the remark.
A further keyword search led us to the complete broadcast of the debate, streamed on the Republic World YouTube channel on 18 July 2024, during a discussion about PM Modi’s security. The relevant segment appears at around the 1 hour 24 minute timestamp.
In this debate, Arnab Goswami cites Rahul Gandhi’s earlier statement while responding to the Congress panellist. The exchange followed a discussion between BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi and a Congress representative, after which Arnab referenced Rahul Gandhi’s remarks to challenge the Congress’s arguments.
We also traced Rahul Gandhi’s original speech from February 2020, delivered during the Delhi Assembly election campaign, in which he criticised unemployment in India. In that speech, Rahul Gandhi said that six or more months later, the youth of India could beat Narendra Modi with sticks and that he would not be able to step out of his house. Several media outlets reported on this statement at the time (here, here and here), confirming the context. This makes it clear that the remark was made by Rahul Gandhi, not Arnab Goswami, and that the viral clip has been clipped.
To sum up, a clipped video is being falsely shared as Arnab Goswami making a provocative statement about PM Modi.
