A video is being widely shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally without realizing his mic was turned off. Sharing the video, this post states, “Mic is off, but comedy is on”. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally without realizing his microphone was off.
Fact: Rahul Gandhi, while addressing the Bharat Jodo Yatra rally in Indore, intentionally switched off his microphone to demonstrate how the allegedly the mics are switched off when opposition leaders raise questions about waiving off farmers’ loans, demonetisation, GST, and other issues in the Parliament. A few moments later, Rahul Gandhi turned on his mic and said this is the way their voice gets suppressed in the Parliament. The video shared in the post clipped the before and after visuals of Rahul Gandhi turning off his mic at the rally in Indore. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When searched for the sources of the video using relevant keywords on the internet, we found that a Twitter user shared an extended version of the video while responding to a tweet made by Rishi Bagree making the same claim. In the extended version of the video, Rahul Gandhi was seen intentionally turning off his mic to demonstrate to people how the voices of Congress party leaders get suppressed when they raise questions about waiving off farmers’ loans, demonetisation, GST and other issues in the Parliament.
When we searched for further sources of this video, we found similar visuals in a video published by the Indian National Congress Party YouTube channel on 27 November 2022. INC published this video describing it as the visuals of Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the Bharat Jodo Yatra rally held in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. During his speech at the rally at Rau in Indore, Rahul Gandhi said, “Not once, but many times I and Congress Party MPs try to raise questions about farmers, waiving off farmers loans, demonetisation and GST in the Lok Sabha. But, whenever we try to raise questions in the Parliament, amazingly our mics will be turned off like this”. For a few moments, Rahul Gandhi was inaudible making only hand and facial gestures. A few moments later, Rahul Gandhi turned on his mic and said, “So, whatever we want to say, like you saw, we will talk continuously but we were inaudible in the house.” Rahul Gandhi intentionally turned off his mic to demonstrate how mics allegedly get turned off when opposition leaders try to raise questions against the government.
Rahul Gandhi did a similar act during the Bharat Jodo Yatra rally held in Maharashtra’s Nanded on 10 November 2022. The video shared in the post clipped before and after visuals of Rahul Gandhi turning off his mic to demonstrate how opposition leaders’ voices get suppressed in the Parliament.
To sum it up, this video does not show Rahul Gandhi making a speech without realizing his microphone was off.
