A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has gone viral on social media.
In the video, he is allegedly heard saying, “Mahatma Gandhi got the idea of non-violence from ancient Indian philosophy, from Islam, from Christianity, from Judaism and from every great religion. It is clearly written, violence will not help anyone achieve anything.”
The video is shared with a caption suggesting that Rahul Gandhi said that Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of non-violence was derived from Islam. A social media user shared the video with a caption, “Mahatma Gandhi picked up the idea of non-violence from Islam, says Rahul Gandhi.”
SouthCheck found that the claim is misleading. We found that the video was taken out of context.
We closely observed that the viral video has the logo of The Print, published on the top-right corner of the video.
Taking a hint, we searched with relevant keywords and found that the same video was shared by The Print on October 12, 2019. In this video, The Print had fact-checked a claim suggesting that Rahul Gandhi said that Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by non-violence in Islam.
The caption read, “Viral video posts are misrepresenting Rahul Gandhi’s views on Mahatma Gandhi picking up the idea of non-violence from many religions.”
However, the viral clip was taken at around a 1:40-minute timestamp, where Rahul Gandhi can be heard saying, “Mahatma Gandhi picked up the idea of non-violence from Islam.” However, the part where he mentioned the other religions has been cut out.
The full video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech was shared by the official Facebook page of the Indian National Congress.
The video was shared on January 12, 2019, with a caption that reads, “Shri Rahul Gandhi interacts with Indian diaspora in Dubai.” In the video at around the 24:20-minute mark, we can see Rahul Gandhi making the same statement as shared in the viral video.
He says, “Mahatma Gandhi was a great exponent of non-violence. But, Mahatma Gandhiji picked up the idea of non-violence from our great religions, from our great teachers. Mahatma Gandhi picked up the idea of non-violence from ancient Indian philosophy, from Islam, from Christianity, from Judaism, from every great religion, where it is clearly written that violence will not help anyone achieve anything…”
The same video 24:11 timestamp was also shared by the YouTube channel of the Indian National Congress on January 11, 2019, with a caption that reads, ‘Congress President Rahul Gandhi addresses Indian diaspora in Dubai.’
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is misleading.
