A video of Rahul Gandhi where the Congress leader can be seen addressing the audience with the microphone turned off, has been shared on social media falsely claiming that it shows another faux pas by Gandhi who did not realise his mic was off while giving a speech.
BOOM found the claim to be false as Gandhi deliberately turned off his mic to demonstrate how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government allegedly censors opposition party members when they raise various issues in parliament.
The clip, which is slightly under 30 seconds, was shared by several BJP supporters.
Rishi Bagree tweeted the clipped version of Gandhi's speech and wrote, "Mic is off but comedy is ON".
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BOOM had fact checked Bagree several times in past for peddling misinformation.
Expelled BJP leader Naveen Kumar Jindal also tweeted the video reiterating a similar false claim.
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Fact Check
BOOM performed a keyword search for "mic off" and found a tweet from Rahul Gandhi featuring a video where he can be seen turning off his microphone. Gandhi uploaded the video on November 10, 2022, alleging the same happens in Parliament whenever he tries to criticise the government.
He wrote, "China - Mic off, Inflation - Mic off, Notebandi - Mic off, Agneepath - Mic off, Unemployment - Mic off. This is the condition of our Parliament! Prime Minister, listen carefully - you cannot suppress the voice of the people, its echo will break your ego."
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Taking a cue, we looked for similar instances during his recent speeches and found the viral video is a part of Gandhi's rally that took place on November 27, 2022 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
The event can be seen on a video uploaded by Indian National Congress's official YouTube channel between 5:04 minutes and 5:35 minutes timestamp.
The video uploaded by Congress, however, was recorded from a different angle when compared to the viral video. Here is a comparison between the viral video and the Congress-uploaded video from Indore.
Gandhi talks about the reason why Congress launched the Bharat Jodo Yatra, an ongoing foot march traversing several Indian states. In his speech he alleges that the BJP-led central government censors any criticism levelled at it.
Gandhi, from 4:17 minute time stamp, says, "I and the entire Congress party's MPs not just once but on several occasions have tried to raise numerous issues in the Lok Sabha. Whether those were about farmers, loan waivers, black laws, demonetisation, faulty GST...about all these things, we tried to raise our voice in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. And whenever we tried to (raise our voice)... magically our mic is turned off like this..."
The Congress leader then addresses the crowd turning off his microphone and turns it on from 5:37 minutes timestamp in the video.
Gandhi continues his speech from 5:38 minutes and says, "...so, whatever we want to say, you can see, whenever we try to speak, we continue our speeches, but the mic gets turn off there..."