Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted a video falsely claiming that Congress leader and Former Union Minister Jitendra Singh Alwar bent down and tied Rahul Gandhi's shoelace during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
However, BOOM found that this is false as other videos and images, clearly show Alwar tying his own shoelaces and not Gandhi's.
The video shows events at Congress Bharat Jodo Yatra, during its Haryana led, which started on December 20, 2022. The Yatra led by Gandhi began in Kerala on September 7, 2022, and is today on its 106th day, having traversed through several states across the country. BOOM has debunked several pieces of misinformation around the yatra since it began.
Malviya tweeted the viral video with the caption, "Former union minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh goes down on his knee to tie Rahul Gandhi's shoelace. The arrogant entitled brat instead of helping himself is seen patting his back…" and text in Hindi that translates to, "Kharge ji was talking about this tradition? There is no dearth of bootlickers in Congress."
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Aman Chopra, Senior Editor, Network 18 also tweeted the viral video with the caption which translates to, "The one who has been patted on the back by Rahul Gandhi is former Union Minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh."
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the claim by Amit Malviya is false and in other visuals available from the spot, we can clearly see Jitendra Singh Alwar tying his own shoelaces after they had come undone.
Alwar responded to Malviya's tweet explaining that Gandhi pointed out to him that Alwar's laces were untied, and he bent down to tie them, while Gandhi paused briefly to let him to do so.
He then went on to tweet a screengrab from a video, where he can be clearly seen bending down to tie his own shoelaces.
Prashant Pratap, tech head of Congress social media also tweeted other photos from the same spot which show Alwar's untied shoelaces.
He also shared a video from another angle where we can clearly see Alwar bending to tie his lace, which is not visible in the video tweeted by Malviya.
BOOM also reached out to Alwar's office who sent us photos and videos from the day which show the same sequence of events as explained in tweets by Congress members.
In these visuals we can clearly see Alwar stopping and beding down to tie his own shoelaces.
Photo from Jitendra Singh Alwar's office to BOOM
In the above photo, Gandhi can be seen pointing to Alwar's shoes. This same sequence can be seen in the viral video.
However, other visuals from other angles show that Alwar did not tie Gandhi's shoelaces as claimed.
Alwar also released a statement dismissing the claim and threatened to file a defamation case against Malviya and asked him to remove the post and apologise.
BOOM has reached out to Alwar for a response and will update the copy upon receiving one.