In the run-up to state assembly elections in India’s Maharashtra and Jharkhand states in November, a video of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi made the rounds on social media alongside false claims it showed him threatening Hindu voters in the South Asian nation. The video actually showed Gandhi criticising government agencies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“When the BJP government is gone, such action will be taken against Hindus which they would not have ever imagined. Open threat by terrorist organisation Congress,” read a Hindi-language post, referring to the opposition Indian National Congress party, that was shared on X on November 18, 2024.
The post included a 21-second video of party leader Gandhi overlaid with text that says, “When BJP is gone, see the action then”.
Gandhi can be heard saying in Hindi: “So they should also think about this… those who are doing these things, one day the BJP government will change, and then there will be action. And such action will be taken that, I guarantee, this will never happen again.”
Screenshot of the false post, taken on November 19, 2024
The post surfaced ahead of the November 20 state assembly elections where Gandhi’s Congress party, in alliance with other regional parties, aimed to wrest power in Maharashtra from the Hindu nationalist BJP and retain control of Jharkhand.
Supporters of the BJP have often accused Congress of being more favourable toward India’s estimated 200-million-strong Muslim minority.
Prime Minister Modi had also accused Gandhi of insulting Hindus in his maiden speech as the leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament in July (archived link)
The video was shared with similar false claims elsewhere on X and on Facebook.
Misrepresented video
Above the falsely shared video is the logo and name of Indian news outlet CNBC Awaaz.
A combination of Google reverse image and keyword searches found the same video shared on the outlet’s official X account on March 15, 2024 (archived link).
The post’s caption read, “Rahul Gandhi’s statement on electoral bonds.”
Another keyword search on YouTube found the footage was also livestreamed on Gandhi’s verified channel on March 15, 2024 (archived link).
The Congress leader was addressing a press conference in Maharashtra at the end of his nine-week-long “Justice March”, a sequel to his earlier Pan India March (archived link).
At the 18:04 mark of the video, Gandhi said in Hindi, “The institutions that we had in India — those institutions aren’t there anymore. Be it the Election Commission, CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), or the ED (Enforcement Directorate) — they are now weapons of the BJP and RSS. That is why things are like this. If these institutions had performed their duties, all this would not have happened.”
From the timestamp of 18:34 onward, Gandhi said, “So they should also think about this … those who are doing these things, one day the BJP government will change and then, there will be action. And such an action will be taken that, I guarantee, this will never happen again.”
Gandhi does not issue any threats to Hindus in the 20-minute press conference.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false posts (left) and the video uploaded on Gandhi’s YouTube channel (right):
Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false posts (left) and the video uploaded on Gandhi’s YouTube channel (right)
The Indian government implemented its electoral bond scheme on January 2, 2018, under which Indian citizens and corporate groups could donate unlimited amounts of money to any political party anonymously (archived link).
AFP reported that the BJP was the single biggest beneficiary of the scheme, receiving $730 million, or around 47 percent of the bonds cashed since April 2019 (archived link).
In February 2024, India’s Supreme Court declared the contentious funding scheme “unconstitutional” (archived link).
