A video of a sanitary napkin with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's photo on the inside is viral with a false claim that it was distributed to women in Bihar, as part of a new menstrual hygiene scheme.
BOOM found that the viral video is fake and was made by a comedian Ratan Ranjan, to mock the political party.
As part of their campaign for Bihar elections, Congress launched the Priyadarshini Udaan Yojana, distributing over 5 lakh sanitary pads, to encourage menstrual hygiene. The move ignited a controversy as the kit featured photos of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the outside, with opposition leaders calling this an insult to women.
The Claim:
The viral video shows a person removing a sanitary napkin from an orange coloured packet with a label detailing Congress' Mai Bahin Maan Yojana and party leader Rahul's photo on top. The person then goes on to open a folded sanitary pad, revealing Rahul Gandhi's face on it.
The video and its screengrabs are viral with captions in English and Hindi, claiming, "Distribution of sanitary napkin with Rahul Gandhi's photo and claiming without shame that it will attract women voters. What is the next? distribution of condoms with pappu's photo for attracting male voters. Only Congress can achieve this kind"
What We Found
1. Difference In Packaging
The package in the viral video is an orange coloured plastic packet with a paper label featuring a photo of Rahul Gandhi and detailing the Congress scheme. We were able to ascertain that the paper label has been fixed on top of a Whisper Choice packet, with its distinctive orange and green packaging.
Sarwat Jehan Fatima, President, Bihar Mahila Congress sent BOOM a picture of the kit distributed to women in Bihar. The kit is a pink coloured cardboard box, with Rahul Gandhi's photo on one side, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the other and details of the scheme in Hindi.
The difference between the original hygiene kit distributed by Congress and the packet seen in the viral video can be seen below:
2. Viral Video Created By Comedian
Multiple social media users named a comedian Ratan Ranjan as the creator of the viral video, first uploaded to his X account on July 5, 2025. Ranjan also shared a video, dressed in drag, mocking Gandhi for his image on the inside of sanitary napkin.
While the original videos have since been deleted from Ranjan's social media accounts, we found a mock interview where he admits to creating the fake video by gluing Gandhi's photo to the inside of the sanitary napkin.
3. Congress Calls Out Viral Video
Alka Lamba, national president of the Congress women’s wing rubbished the viral video, calling it fake. "The video is being shared with wrong intentions. The packet in the viral video is orange in colour while ours is pink... and manufactured in a local unit run by women." Congress has also filed an FIR against the comedian Ranjan and others for the fake video.
