A statement praising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by calling him the "hero of Indian politics" has been falsely attributed to senior Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) senior leader LK Advani.
BOOM found that the claims are false, we found no credible reports that supported the viral claim about Advani's statement.
The viral posts claim that Advani spoke about how Rahul Gandhi was the "only person who can make India a good nation, because he has the ability to take decisions which can provide new direction to the citizens of India."
The full claim reads, "The country's former Home Minister Bharat Ratna Shri Lal Krishna Advani has given a big statement regarding Rahul Gandhi. Advani has said that even though I am from BJP, today as a social worker of India, I want to tell the Indian public that Rahul Gandhi is the only person who can make India a good nation, because he has the ability to take decisions which can provide new direction to the citizens of India. I have also served the country as a Home Minister. But I have never seen an influential leader like Rahul Gandhi in politics."
The latter half of the message reads, "Lal Krishna Advani's statement has come at a time when the third phase of elections is going on today. His statement is also being considered important because recently he has been given Bharat Ratna by the Modi government, in such a situation, by praising Rahul Gandhi, Lal Krishna Advani has posed a big challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi."
A user on Facebook shared the quote along with a photo of Gandhi and Advani and a link to a website, 'avadhbhoomi.com'.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The X handle of Arunachal Congress shared the same claim with the caption, "*Flash News* Rahul Gandhi is the hero of Indian politics: Lal Krishna Advani (LK Advani).*(http://avadhbhoomi.com)*7. May. 2024.*The country's former Home Minister Bharat Ratna Shri Lal Krishna Advani has given a big statement regarding Rahul Gandhi. @INCIndia"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claims are false, the quote has not been published by any credible news outlet.
We ran a search for any such statements made by LK Advani for Rahul Gandhi and did not find any results.
Taking a hint from the name of the website, avadhbhoomi.com, we ran a search for any article published by them about Rahul Gandhi and LK Advani. We found a Google search result of an article titled 'Rahul Gandhi is the hero of Indian politics: LK Advani' published in Hindi by Avadhbhumi. While this article had been taken down, we were able to find its archive link.
Below is a screenshot of the archive.
The text of this article published in Hindi was similar to the caption with which the viral post was being shared. The story was written by a 'Anil Shukla Madhukar', and published on May 8, 2024. We also found that almost all the stories on this website were written by the same person, Anil Shukla Madhukar.
Further, we found that the website's terms and conditions were framed according to the law of Netherlands.
We also found a disclaimer section that stated how the website did not "guarantee the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of the information" published on it.
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