A video (here, here, here, and here) of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is circulating online with the claim that he made a statement that Rahul Gandhi is responsible for the country’s destruction. In the video, we can see Mallikarjun Kharge saying, ‘Brothers, before everything, I would like to say Rahul Ji is busy ruining the country.’ We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: The video shows Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge blaming Rahul Gandhi for ruining the country.
Fact: This is a digitally edited video. In the original footage from March 2024, Kharge is blaming the Prime Minister, not Rahul Gandhi. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the claim, we performed a reverse image search on a few keyframes from the viral clip and located the original speech on the Congress party’s official YouTube channel, dated 3 March 2024. It was part of the “Jan Vishwas Rally” of the INDIA alliance held in Patna.
In the full-length video, around the 29-second mark, Kharge can be clearly heard saying that it’s Prime Minister Modi who is responsible for harming the country, not Rahul Gandhi. The edited version replaces this, making it seem like Kharge attributed blame to Gandhi instead. There is no reference to Rahul Gandhi in the original speech.
No reliable news outlet or official transcript supports the claim that Kharge recently blamed Rahul Gandhi for ruining the country.
To sum up, a doctored clip falsely portrays Mallikarjun Kharge accusing Rahul Gandhi of destroying India. In reality, he was referring to PM Modi.
