Amit Malviya, head of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) IT Cell tweeted a cropped video of Rahul Gandhi where the Congress leader can be heard saying he is fighting against the entire infrastructure of India.
BOOM found that the clip has been cropped and shared out of context.
In the longer version of the video, it is clear that Gandhi is talking about the decline of Democratic Institutions in India such as the judiciary, electoral system and the media. Gandhi claimed that such institutions are no longer independent and alleged that they have been subverted by the ruling BJP government.
In this context, the Congress leader says that the Congress is not fighting against a political party but against the entire infrastructure of India.
The video was shared by Malviya with the caption, "If Rahul Gandhi's prater weren't puerile, they would be deeply dangerous…"
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The same cropped video was also shared by the Facebook page Nation with NaMo. BOOM has previously debunked misinformation posted by both Malviya and Nation with NaMo.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video has been cropped and shared out of context.
The video has been cropped from a press conference held by Rahul Gandhi on August 5, 2022. On August 5, dressed in all black, Congress leaders took to streets as they held a nationwide protest against price rise, unemployment, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike on essential items.
While parsing through the speech it is clear that Gandhi was talking about the decline of democratic institutions such as the judiciary, electoral system and media. The Congress leader said that in a democracy the opposition fights relying on democratic institutions. However, democratic institutions in India are no longer independent and fully support the ruling government. He alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had infiltrated such institutions. He also said that institutions were neutral when Congress was in power.
It is in this context that he said that the Congress party is not just fighting a political party (BJP) but the entire infrastructure of India.
"Today every institution of India is not independent. Today every institution of India is under the control of the RSS, every RSS person is appointed in an institution. So we are not fighting with a political party, we are fighting against the whole infrastructure of India," Rahul Gandhi said.
"When our government was there the infrastructure was neutral," he added.
The portions before and after the part in the viral video have been cropped out.
We can see these sections of the press conference from the timestamp 11.30 to 12.41 minutes.
