A video of Rahul Gandhi asking the crowd at his rally for a stick which had the Indian flag on it is being shared on social media with the misleading claim that the Congress leader asked for the Indian flag to be removed during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Maharashtra.
BOOM found that the viral video is cropped and being shared out of context. Gandhi asked for a stick to demonstrate how the government allegedly misuses central agencies.
The seven seconds video was posted on X by Bharatiya Janata Party IT cell chief Amit Malviya with the caption, "Rahul Gandhi asks India’s flag to be taken down…This is straight out of George Soros’s rule book, where he asks his protégée to insult and demean everything Indian."
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation posted by Malviya.
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The same video is being shared on Facebook with the same misleading claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is being shared out of context to make the misleading claim that Rahul Gandhi asked the crowd at his roadshow to remove the Indian flag.
On watching the live stream of the roadshow we found that Gandhi was trying to demonstrate how the government allegedly misuses central agencies, and to do so he asked for a stick.
From the 9.59 minutes timestamp in the video from the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Dondaicha in Dhule district, Maharashtra which was uploaded on March 13, 2024, we can see the exact sequence of events.
Gandhi asks a man who says that his name is Santosh Patil to come where he is sitting and tells him he will demonstrate how the government uses agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Gandhi then tells the crowd that Patil represents Indians, then claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is distracting people with various issues such as the PM's foreign trips, Pakistan and China. Gandhi then alleges that Adani will rob the man's pocket and then at the 11.13 minutes timestamp asks the crowd for a stick. At the 11.17 minutes timestamp Gandhi can be heard saying, "remove the flag from the stick".
The preceding portion, which explains the context, has been cropped out of the viral claim. However, a few Congress supporters struggle to remove the flag from the stick after which Gandhi asks for a smaller stick. A man in the crowd then hands him a different stick.
After this Gandhi says that the stick will be used by Home Minister Amit Shah who will unleash ED and CBI on their critics.
This whole sequence of events can be seen in the below livestream from the 10.11 minutes timestamp to 11.42 minutes timestamp.