A mischievously edited video of former president of the Indian National Congress (INC) Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally in Delhi ahead of the Assembly Elections, is doing the rounds on Twitter with claims that he delivered a bizarre and comic speech.
In the first part of the edited footage, Gandhi throws a question to the audiences and asks them the reason why eagles are flying above. As he speaks, he points at the sky. A short clip of birds flying can be seen immediately after. In the second part of the footage he refers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and how they are responsible for unemployment.
Both the clips have been mischievously joined and the sequence altered in a way that it appears that Gandhi blamed the BJP government for the lack of employment among the birds.
The edited footage has been tweeted by Harsh Sanghavi, the national vice president of BJP Yuva Morcha, who took a dig at Gandhi for drawing such bizarre comparisons. Sanghavi wrote, "Someone at least stop him."
The same footage has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp and Facebook.
It has been viewed more than 1.2 million times on Facebook at the time of writing this article. The video has been captioned as, "Pappu's comedy show."
It has been doing the rounds with a Hindi caption which translates to English as, "Why are these eagles flying here. Because they are not getting employment and Narendra Modi and RSS are responsible for this - Rahul Gandhi." (Original text in Hindi: ये चीले यहाँ क्यूँ उड़ रहे है क्योंकि इनको रोजगार नहीं मिल रहा ये बेरोजगार है इसका कारण है नरेंद्र मोदी,RSS- राहुल गांधी"
BOOM received it on its helpline number for verification as well.
Fact Check
BOOM could ascertain that the video has been created for comic purposes and Gandhi did not draw comparison between flying eagles and unemployment. A logo of 'Being Baklol' can be seen on the bottom left. Being Baklol is a satirical group, which produces comic content.
Upon relevant keyword searches, we found the same speech where Gandhi was addressing an election campaign in Kondli, New Delhi, on February 5.
Parts of the speech had been tampered with, sequence changed and joined to produce the viral clip.
Rahul Gandhi begins his speech and says how the country's harmony has been disrupted in the past five years. He can be seen interacting with 10 year old kids who approve of the same. He then asks, "What could be the reason behind the disruption."
Reference of eagles flying above
At 9 minute 45 seconds Gandhi makes the eagle reference and compares how commoners have to face poor living conditions, while PM Modi gives tax benefits to the rich of the country. He says, "OK brother, tell my what are the eagles doing here. Why are they flying here? Can anybody say why the eagles are flying here? How many crores will be needed to remove this dirt? Narendra Modi ji had waved off Rs 1,30,000 crores taxes for the richest men of India. You people stay in dirt for 24 * 7 and the rich can live at peace in castles."
Lack of unemployment for last five years
In his address, Rahul Gandhi then goes on to stress on how the youth has been confused. He says, "They have been studying for so many years. They went to school, college and university and also took exams. But for the past five years, they have not been earning anything. And when the youth of any country doesn't see a road ahead, then they are angered."
At 3 minute 30 second mark, the context of how a situation of lack of income has been created for the youth is referred to; the same part has been used at the 20 second mark in the viral video.
Narendra Modi, BJP and RSS reference
At 3 minute 15 seconds Gandhi can be heard saying, "What is the reason behind this. A lot of people will say that the reason is Narendra Modi. The reason is RSS and the reason is BJP. But I will want to look at it differently. The biggest reason is that the youth of the country doesn't have any aim. They are afraid of unemployment."
The exact Narendra Modi, BJP and RSS reference was edited and inserted in the viral comic clip at 24 second mark.
Below is the Facebook LIVE video from the same day.
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