Advani did not refer to Rahul Gandhi as the 'Hero of Indian Politics' - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 15, 2024
A social media post accompanying a news clip allegedly from ‘Townhall Times’ suggests that L.K. Advani praised Rahul Gandhi (here, here & here). According to the clip, former home minister L.K. Advani hailed Rahul Gandhi as the ‘hero of Indian politics.’ This article aims to verify the accuracy of the assertion presented in the post.
Claim: Former home minister L.K. Advani hailed Rahul Gandhi as the ‘hero of Indian politics.’
Fact: L.K. Advani did not make the comments regarding Rahul Gandhi. These remarks were erroneously attributed to Advani by certain news agencies. However, they later clarified this misattribution and retracted their reports. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The news clip claiming that BJP leader and former home minister L.K. Advani praised Rahul Gandhi as the ‘hero of Indian politics’ was indeed published by the agency ‘Townhall Times’ on 09 May 2024. Another agency, ‘Avadhbhuminews,’ also published a similar report, attributing the alleged remarks to L.K. Advani. Nevertheless, these reports lack substantiation from credible sources. To investigate further, we searched for other sources that reported these alleged comments but found none. If Advani had actually made such remarks, it would have been widely reported.
Also, the news agencies that initially reported this have since retracted their stories. Both agencies have removed the news from their websites. Additionally, as the news spread widely, Townhall Times issued an erratum in its 11 May 2024 edition, clarifying that the attributed comments were incorrect and not made by Advani. They explained that similar remarks regarding Rahul Gandhi were made by Arun Maji, the secretary of the ‘New Democratic Party of India’. This clarification was also provided in our correspondence with them.
Furthermore, in communication with ABP, Deepak Chopra, a close associate of L.K. Advani, confifmed that Advani had never made any remarks about Rahul Gandhi of the kind reported. Therefore, all these make it clear that the viral comments regarding Rahul Gandhi are falsely attributed to Advani.
To sum up, Advani did not refer to Rahul Gandhi as the ‘hero of Indian Politics’. These statements have been falsely attributed to him.