Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries including IT Cell chief Amit Malviya and BJP Delhi spokesperson Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga tweeted an edited video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to falsely claim that the latter refused to wear a turban when there were no cameras.
The BJP members further accused Gandhi of staging the Bharat Jodo Yatra and disrespecting Sikhs .
In the 30-second long viral video Gandhi can be seen interacting with a man, who runs a turban tying service in Punjab. Later, a person standing next to Gandhi explains to him about the turban tier's social media presence and that he is 'the best turban tier in Punjab'.
Gandhi then goes on to ask about the significance of different colour turbans and the video ends abruptly.
Malviya tweeted the video and captioned it as, "Everything is choreographed in Bharat Jodo Yatra including who should be called in to tie the turban and its colour. What is offensive though is Rahul Gandhi refusing to wear the turban when there were no cameras…Exploiting religious sentiments for politics is in Congress's DNA."(sic.) In the past Malviya has tweeted several cropped videos of Rahul Gandhi from the Bharat Jodo Yatra to peddle misinformation. Read BOOM's fact checks here, here and here.
Click here for the archive of the tweet.
The video was tweeted and shared by Bagga on Facebook with the caption, "For Rahul Gandhi everything is for Votes and PR. अभी नहीं बाँधूँगा, अभी कैमरे नहीं है" (Translation: Will not tie (the turban) now, now cameras are not there)
Click here for an archive of Bagga's tweet.
BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa tweeted the cropped video and in a separate video condemned Gandhi for asking the significance of saffron coloured turban. Sirsa also reiterated the claim that Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra is staged.
Click here for an archive of Sirsa's tweet.
The video is circulating on social media with similar captions.
Fact Check
BOOM found a State News ਪੰਜਾਬ logo on the top right corner of the viral video.
We then looked up State News Punjab on Facebook and found the official page of the news outlet. The clearer version of the video was uploaded by the outlet on January 10, 2023. The video has been captioned as, "At whose request did Rahul Gandhi reach Amritsar, wear Kesari Pagh". (Original text in Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ ਪਹੁੰਚੇ ਰਾਹੁਲ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਨੇ ਕਿਸ ਦੇ ਕਹਿਣ ਤੇ ਬੰਨੀ ਕੇਸਰੀ ਪੱਗ)
In the first few moments of the video, a man standing next to Rahul Gandhi says, "Best hai Punjab mein sir." Gandhi immediately asks, "Best hai, best matlab turban waale?" Soon after, a female voice asks, "ek picture le loon?" (Can I take a picture) At 6 second mark, Rahul Gandhi refuses the woman's request to take a photo and says, "Abhi nahin madam, abhi nahin." (Not now madam, not now!) This clarifies that Gandhi was not refusing to wear the turban in the absence of cameras but the woman who had approached him for a photograph during the interaction.
We then looked up State News Punjab's Facebook page and came across an interview of the man who tied the turban to Gandhi on the same day.
According to a fact check by Rozana Spokesman, a Punjab news outlet, the man's name is Manjit Singh Ferozepuria; Ferozepuria is a turban artist based in Amritsar
BOOM then looked up Ferozpuria on YouTube and found the same viral video where Gandhi can be heard interacting with him and a few others in Amritsar.
We then reached out to Ferozepuria, who confirmed to BOOM, "Rahul Gandhi was interacting with me and a few other people when a woman interrupted him and approached him for a photograph. He told her to wait so that he could wear the pagdi. Nowhere did Rahul Gandhi say that he did not want to wear a turban because there are no cameras. I am witness to it."
While Ferozepuria did not disclose where the incident happened, he said, "The incident happened in a room, where the woman was there. Later, Rahul Gandhi tied the turban with a lot of respect. Sirsa's videos and the claims attached to them are baseless."