A viral video of Rahul Gandhi at a rally saying an 'X-ray means caste census' is cropped and is being shared out of context by social media users to mock the Congress leader.
A longer version of his speech shows that Gandhi described an X-ray as an analogy for doing a caste census to asses the condition of backward castes in India.
The Congress party along with other opposition parties have been advocating for a caste census, promising if the INDIA alliance is elected to power in 2024, it will conduct a caste census, along with a financial survey to know the situation on the ground. Gandhi in several of his recent speeches has described it as “caste survey is social X-ray” and said that OBCs, SCs and STs of the country have marginal or no representation in big corporations.
The viral video was posted on X by the verified handle, DrVinushaReddy (@vinushareddyb), "What is he speaking?? "Today my security staff leg stuck under car. The first thing I asked him to do was to get X- ray . X-ray meaning castesensus." #Pappu #RahulGandhi"
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Another verified X handle Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) posted it with the caption, "Today the security guy's foot came under the car, we asked him to get X-Ray done. X-Ray means caste census."
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation posted by Singh.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video has been cropped and taken out of context to mock the Congress leader.
We found that the viral video has been taken from a Gandhi's speech given in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh on February 19, 2024. From the 16 minutes timestamp we can hear Gandhi explaining what the caste census means according to him and how he feels it could be helpful to backward castes.
Gandhi can be heard saying, 'I said that everyone has to be counted. How many poor general caste people are there in this country? How much power do they have in their hands, how many backward people there are in this country. Which castes are there, how much wealth do they have, how much wealth do tribals and Dalits have? Meaning, like caste census, if someone gets hurt then the first thing to do is...today one of our security personnel's feet came under the car. The first thing we said was that brother should go and get an X-ray done. X-ray means caste census."
The first part of this has been cropped out of the viral video, which gives context of him explaining the caste census. This part has been cropped and shared with misleading claims that he told his security personnel an X-ray is a caste census.
Additionally, Gandhi has been speaking about the caste census and has likened it with getting an X-ray since last year before the assembly elections in five states including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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