Video Of Rahul Gandhi Making Controversial Remarks About Women Is Edited

An edited video of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is now being circulated on social media, in which he can be heard making controversial remarks about rape and women.

In the video, Gandhi purportedly says, “80 percent of rapes happen because of women. Rape happens in India, but not in Bharat. A girl has a place: she should be locked inside a cage, she should be controlled, she should not work, and boys should be given complete freedom.”

BOOM found that Gandhi in his original speech was referring to earlier statements made by Mohan Bhagwat and Manohar Lal Khattar. The viral video has been edited to remove the portion where the Congress leader identifies and quotes them.

The Claim

The posts claim that Rahul Gandhi said women should be kept locked inside a cage and that rape happens in India but not in Bharat.

Click here to view an archive of the post.

What We Found: Video Is Digitally Manipulated

1. Video is from the Chhatron Ki Goonj event in Pune: We watched the live video of Rahul Gandhi's speech at the Chhatron Ki Goonj event in Pune on his official YouTube channel. We found that, contrary to the viral clip, Rahul Gandhi can be seen throughout the speech advocating for an end to patriarchy and speaking in favour of women's equality, freedom and rights.

The portion seen in the viral video is also present in the original video. However, it is clear from the full context that Rahul Gandhi was making these remarks while referring to earlier statements by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The viral video was created by removing this context.

2. Original speech by Gandhi: At the 1:10:48 mark in the video, Rahul Gandhi says, “Mohan Bhagwat ji says that rape happens in India and not in Bharat. Khattar ji says that 80 percent of rapes happen because of women. So this is a mindset, and there is a fight against this mindset.”

He then adds, “What is this mindset? That a girl has a place: she should be locked inside a cage, she should be controlled, she should not work, and boys should be given full freedom. They can do whatever they want, abuse people if they want, work if they want. We do not want such a Hindustan. We want justice. Everyone should be respected, boys should be respected, girls should be respected...”

It should be noted that on August 22, Rahul Gandhi addressed the Chhatron Ki Goonj event in Pune, where he spoke about women's freedom and patriarchy. During the event, he also referred to the Manusmriti and criticised the mindset of treating women as the property of their fathers, husbands and children.

3. Earlier remarks by Mohan Bhagwat and Manohar Lal Khattar: During a visit to Silchar in 2013, Mohan Bhagwat reportedly said that incidents of rape occur more in “India” and not in “Bharat.”

In 2018, while serving as the Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar also said that “80-90 percent of rape and molestation incidents happen among people who know each other.” He said that people often know each other, spend a long time together, and that after something goes wrong one day, an FIR is filed alleging rape.

Both statements sparked controversy at the time and drew strong reactions.