A trimmed video is being shared alleging Rahul Gandhi's assertion of speaking to Mahatma Gandhi - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 6, 2023
We’ve received a video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech via our WhatsApp tip line (+91 92470 52470), with a request to verify its authenticity. In the video, Rahul Gandhi can be heard stating that he engaged in a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi on a certain topic, expressing his disagreement with Mahatma Gandhi’s perspective, even though he acknowledged that Mahatma Gandhi was ultimately correct. Through this article, let’s fact-check the authenticity of the video.
Claim: Video of Rahul Gandhi stating that he had a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi.
Fact: The viral excerpt is extracted from Rahul Gandhi’s speech during the Chintan Shivir session of the Gujarat unit of the Congress, held in February 2022. In this speech Rahul Gandhi made these viral comments trying to paraphrase Nehru’s words from a letter in which he discusses a conversation he had with Mahatma Gandhi regarding a certain issue. This part of his speech is misconstrued as he asserted that he had a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
This video is dated and has undergone digital editing to remove certain segments of Rahul Gandhi’s speech. Using reverse image search on the screenshots from the widely circulated video, we traced back to the original video posted on the official Twitter account of the Congress party.
Moreover, the Indian National Congress has uploaded the complete recording of Rahul Gandhi’s speech on their official YouTube channel. The video’s description indicates that this speech was delivered during a brainstorming session of the Gujarat unit of the Congress, known as the Chintan Shivir, held in February 2022.
In this speech specifically, at the 30:01 timestamp, Rahul Gandhi discusses the distinction between Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders. He refers to a letter written by Nehru in which Nehru discusses a conversation he had with Mahatma Gandhi regarding a certain issue.
Further, Rahul Gandhi goes on to state that ‘in the letter, Nehru acknowledges that in his own mind and as per logic, he believes he is right, and Mahatma Gandhi is wrong on the matter. However, he also recognizes deep down that Mahatma Gandhi is indeed right, and he himself is mistaken.’
It is this part of Rahul Gandhi’s speech taken out of context, creating the false impression that Rahul Gandhi asserted he had a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi.
To sum it up, a trimmed video is being shared alleging Rahul Gandhi’s assertion of speaking to Mahatma Gandhi.