A viral video featuring Rahul Gandhi alleges that he insulted the Indian national flag. In the clip, Rahul Gandhi can be heard asking the crowd at his rally for a stick. When the crowd attempts to hand him a stick with a flag attached, he requests that they remove the flag and only hand him the stick. This article aims to fact-check the claim made in the post.
The archived version of this post can be found here
Claim: Video depicting Rahul Gandhi insulting the Indian flag.
Fact: In his speech, Rahul Gandhi asks the crowd for a flag-less stick to illustrate the alleged misuse of investigative agencies by the central government. However, this context is deliberately omitted, while sharing only the part where he requests the stick resulting in a false narrative. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
In the extended version of the widely circulated video clip, it becomes clear that Rahul Gandhi did indeed ask the crowd to remove the flag from the stick. Nevertheless, he did so within a broader context, aiming to illustrate the purported misuse of central investigative agencies by the government.
A YouTube search using relevant keywords provided us with the full footage of the video, from which the viral excerpt is extracted. According to the video description, the incident occurred during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Dondaicha, Maharashtra, on 13 March 2024.
Approximately ten minutes into the video, translated loosely from Hindi, “Rahul Gandhi can be heard inviting a man named Santosh Patil to approach him, indicating he will illustrate how the government employs agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Gandhi then addresses the crowd, suggesting that Patil symbolizes ordinary Indians, and asserts that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is diverting attention to issues like foreign trips, Pakistan, and China. He proceeds to claim that Adani will exploit the man’s situation and then requests the crowd for a stick. When they attempt to offer a stick with a flag attached, he asks them to remove the flag and hand over just the stick.
Later, when the crowd presents only the stick, he explains to the audience that the stick symbolizes Home Minister Amit Shah, who will deploy the ED and CBI against their critics.”
Therefore, from the entirety of the speech, it is apparent that Rahul Gandhi merely requested a stick to illustrate the alleged misuse of investigative agencies by the central government. However, this crucial context is selectively omitted, and only the segment where he asks for a stick is being circulated, leading to a false narrative.
FACTLY previously debunked the latter portion of the viral video, which allegedly claims that he insulted the Bharat Mata. You can read the fact-check article debunking the video here.
To sum it up, a video of Rahul Gandhi illustrating the government’s Misuse of investigative agencies falsely portrayed as insulting the Indian flag.
