An old video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaking at Congress’ OBC Sammelan is viral online with the false claim that he called himself a tailor.
BOOM found that the video has been clipped and shared out of context to make the false claim; in the full video, Gandhi is heard speaking about how tailors from backward castes in India don’t get their due credit.
In the 55 seconds video, we can hear Gandhi saying, "The world calls me a fashion designer, but I am not a fashion designer, I am a tailor, When I see the cloth, show me any cloth, any colour, as soon as I see the cloth I can understand it. How to cut it, how to put it on one person's shoulders, which colours should go where. This is my talent, this is my work. I can tell you I know my work very well. Now you listen to me carefully, that cloth was made by a tailor, that tailor is hidden in this person's back room. You remove that tailor from the back room and send him to Paris, France, we will clap."
The video was posted by the Instagram handle @tryfun11 with the caption when translated reads, "I am a tailor" and "Papu tailor".
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The same video is also being shared on Facebook with the caption when translated reads, "I am a fan, Respected Rahul Gandhi ji... Listen. Please...i am a tailor"
(In Hindi - मैं तो Fan हूँ आदरणीय Rahul Gandhi जी का... सुनिए ना. ..Please ... मैं एक दर्जी हूँ)
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BOOM also received the same video on its WhatsApp tipline number (+91 7700906588) with a verification request.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video has been cropped and shared out of context to make the false claim that Rahul Gandhi is calling himself a tailor. We watched his full speech from June 2018 and found that he was quoting from a conversation with another fashion designer.
We looked at the viral video closely and found that the Instagram video carried a watermark of the page's YouTube channel. We looked up this channel on YouTube and found that it regularly posted videos mocking Rahul Gandhi. One of those videos, shared on November 11, 2023 purportedly showed Gandhi speaking about how the founder of Coca Cola used to sell shikanji, also known as lemonade. The visuals in this video matched the viral video, leading us to conclude that both the statements were made during the same event.
We ran a search for Gandhi's statement about Coca Cola and found a video report by NDTV that mentioned how Gandhi made the statement during his party's backward caste convention, or OBC Sammelan, on June 11, 2018.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a search for his full speech at the event and found a video shared by Indian National Congress' official YouTube channel on June 11.
At the 2:36:00 mark, Gandhi begins speaking about a conversation he had with a fashion designer who mocked an Indian designer's work. When Gandhi asked the designer why they made fun of the Indian artist, the designer said while explaining, "The world calls me a fashion designer, but I am not a fashion designer. I am a tailor, When I see the cloth, show me any cloth, any colour, as soon as I see the cloth I can understand it. How to cut it, how to put it on one person's shoulders, which colours should go where. This is my talent, this is my work. I can tell you I know my work very well. Now you listen to me carefully, that cloth was made by a tailor, that tailor is hidden in this person's back room. You remove that tailor from the back room and send him to Paris, France, we will clap."
In this part of the speech, Gandhi was trying to address how people from backward castes often contribute to the success of upper-class professionals without getting credit.
A part from this speech where the designer calls himself a tailor has been clipped to falsely claim that Gandhi made the statement.
Below is a comparison between the viral video and the original video from INC's YouTube channel:
