Did Rahul Gandhi call all Hindus ‘violent’ in his Lok Sabha speech? Fact Check

After Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s maiden speech in Lok Sabha on July 1, 2024, a video is being shared on social media with a claim that he was targeting the entire Hindu community calling them “Violent”.

The claim reads: “Sheer audacity of LoP ⁦ RahulGandhi⁩ to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows ⁦INCIndia⁩’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed.(sic)”

See the video here:

Sheer audacity of LoP ⁦ RahulGandhi⁩ to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows ⁦INCIndia⁩’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed. pic.twitter.com/1yQLVxsisg

— V Venkat (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Venkatv_BJP) July 1, 2024

The video has been shared widely here and here.

FACT-CHECK

The video shows Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha for 11 seconds where he can be heard saying in Hindi, “Those who call themselves Hindu keep repeating about violence, hate, and falsehood, 24 hours a day.”

Since the original video is available on the official YouTube channel of Sansad TV, we checked for the veracity of the claim. The longer version of the video shows Rahul Gandhi attacking PM Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) together in his speech.

Titled, “Rahul Gandhi’s Remarks | Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in #18thloksabha”, it shows Rahul Gandhi alleging that the BJP government has systematically targeted the constitution for the past 10 years. Then he showed the image of Lord Shiva and started explaining how he had learnt not to fear.

At the 18:37 timestamp in the original video, Rahul Gandhi said, “Lord Shiva says don’t be scared and don’t scare others.” He then showed Abhayamudra (palm) of Lord Shiva and the importance of the Trishool (trident) in the back ground. Then, pointing both his hands at the treasury benches (BJP members), he said in Hindi, “Those who call themselves Hindus, keep talking about violence, hate, and lies 24 hours a day. They are not Hindus. In Hinduism, it is clearly written that you should stand by the truth and not to get scared by truth.”

At this moment, PM Modi got up and said, “This is a very serious matter. To call the entire Hindu community violent is a very serious issue.” To this, Rahul Gandhi quickly responded saying, “No, no, no, Narendra Modi ji is not the entire Hindu community. BJP and RSS are not the entire Hindu community.”

But this part has been removed from the video clip being shared on social media with a claim that Rahul Gandhi attacked the entire Hindus. Hence, the claim is misleading.

Claim: “Leader of Opposition RahulGandhi to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows INCIndia’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus.”

Conclusion: The claim is misleading. It is clear that Rahul Gandhi called BJP members and its followers “hinsak”(violent), not the Hindus in general. The section has been removed to show it as a general statement.

Rating: Misrepresentation —