A video of Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) arriving at the Parliament ahead of the Lok Sabha vote on the Waqf (Amendment) bill is viral with a misleading claim that he was absent from the entire discussion and debate on the law, appearing only to vote.
Indian parliament passed the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 after it received Presidential assent on April 5. The bill which has been in scrutiny for several months, was passed in Lok Sabha on April 2, 2025 and subsequently by the Rajya Sabha.
The viral video is being shared with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "Hindus open your eyes and see...Rahul Gandhi was not in the House since morning..But now at 10 pm he has reached the Parliament to vote against the Waqf Bill with the intention of illegally occupying your properties...#WaqfBoard #WaqfBillAmendment"
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The same video is being shared on X with the same false claim.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the claim is misleading.
We were able to confirm that Rahul Gandhi was present in the morning session, when the bill was debated on April 2, 2025. We further found that he was still in the House, hours after the bill was passed in the wee hours of April 3, 2025.
Debate and discussion on the Waqf Bill began on the morning of Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in the Lok Sabha. The discussion which involved individual speeches by many leaders went on for over 12 hours, with voting initiated around the time the clock struck midnight.
The bill was passed around 12.43 a.m., in the wee hours of Thursday April 3, 2025.
We then looked to verify whether Gandhi was missing from the Lok Sabha all of the morning of April 2, skipping the debate and arriving directly at night, to cast his vote. A specific keyword showed that the viral video was originally part of IANS reporting from the Parliament.
The news video posted at 10.16 p.m., by the wire agency IANS, shows Gandhi arriving at the Lok Sabha. This shows that Gandhi arrived at least two hours before the voting began at 12 a.m.
To ascertain whether Gandhi was absent from the session in the morning, as being claimed, we checked footage of the full debate broadcasted live by the government owned Sansad TV. Gandhi can be seen seated in the background, as several Opposition leaders including Congress MPs KC Venugopal and Gaurav Gogoi and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee gave speeches opposing the Waqf (Amendment) bill.
Gogoi spoke on the bill at 1:16 p.m., Banerjee at 2.30 p.m. and Venugopal at 6 p.m. on April 2, 2025. At all of these times Gandhi is seen on screen in the live proceedings.
Rahul Gandhi spotted during KC Venugopal, Gaurav Gogoi and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee's speeches
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Additionally we also found a video update posted on X by ANI at 2.24 a.m. showing Gandhi leaving from the parliament. Hours after the bill was passed at 12.43 a.m. on April 3, 2025.
BOOM could not independently verify what time Rahul Gandhi left from the session to arrive again, but we were able to confirm that he was present and attended the discussions and debate held in the morning, making the viral claims misleading.
Introduced in August 2024 and supported by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Act aims to bring in accountability and transparency to the Waqf Board. The bill has been criticised by Muslim bodies, who allege infringement of their religious freedoms. Congress voted against the bill, strongly opposing it in both the Houses.
