Video of Rahul Gandhi criticizing Agnipath scheme falsely shared as him advocating for a nonsensical youth employment opportunity - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 2, 2024
A video featuring Rahul Gandhi, where he appears to discuss job opportunities for young people, is being shared widely, claiming that he is making a nonsensical offer (here). In the video, he is heard saying in Hindi, which roughly translates to, “If any young person wants to protect this flag, we will train them for six months, and after four years, we will ask them to leave.” This article aims to fact-check the accuracy of the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing Rahul Gandhi talking about job opportunities for young people, which include termination after four years.
Fact: As per the extended version of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, he made these comments criticizing the Modi government for implementing the Agnipath scheme, which mandates that recruits retire after four years of service. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Although the video shows Rahul Gandhi discussing job opportunities for youth, the extended footage reveals that his comments were actually a critique of the Agnipath scheme introduced by the BJP government. A YouTube search using relevant keywords led us to a year-old news report featuring an extended version of the same speech by Rahul Gandhi. The description of the video labels it as ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul Gandhi’s attack against the Agnipath Scheme’.
In this speech, Rahul Gandhi was heard criticizing the BJP government for implementing the Agnipath scheme, which requires recruits to retire after four years of service. The Hindi speech by Rahul Gandhi can be loosely translated as, ‘Previously, if someone wished to serve this flag (the tricolour), the Indian government would support them for their entire life in recognition of their service to the nation. This was the relationship between the government and the recruit.’
He then continued, saying, ‘Narendra Modi has disrupted this bond by stating that if any young person wants to protect this flag, we will train them for six months, and after four years, we will ask them to leave.’
Additionally, there have been reports of Rahul Gandhi criticizing the BJP government’s Agnipath scheme during his Bharat Jodo Yatra (here, here & here). Therefore, as per the extended version of the video, it can be concluded that only the part where Rahul Gandhi discusses the intricacies of the Agnipath scheme is shared to falsely imply that he is advocating for a nonsensical employment opportunity for the youth.
To sum up, a video showing Rahul Gandhi criticizing the Agnipath scheme has been misleadingly presented as him advocating a nonsensical job opportunity for the youth.