1 year ago
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An already debunked video of a man distributing cash during an Indian National Congress rally has been shared on social media platforms misleadingly claiming that it shows a recent incident from the party's nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra.
In the viral video, people can be seen carrying the Congress party flags and receiving cash from a person as a speech of Rahul Gandhi can be heard in the background.
BOOM found the video is at least five years old and has been maliciously edited to include an old speech of Gandhi from a Congress rally held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
The same video was earlier viral in October 2017, with a claim that the Congress paid supporters to attend Rahul Gandhi's rally in Gujarat. BOOM had then debunked the video.
The Congress launched its 3,570km long foot march 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' on September 7, 2022, opposing several actions of the BJP-led central government. The rally, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saw footfall of several prominent people including ex-RBI governor Raghuram Rajan; the march is expected to cover 12 states across the nation within 150 days.
The video has been shared with a Malayalam caption which translates to, "Jodo Yatra is going well. How correctly people coming for Rahul's programme is getting paid".
(Original Text in Malayalam: ജോഡോ യാത്ര അങ്ങനെ ജോറായി നീങ്ങുന്നു. രാഹുലിന്റെ പരിപാടിക്ക് എത്തുന്നവർക്ക് കൂലി എന്ത് കൃത്യമായിട്ടാണ് കൊടുക്കുന്നത്. കോൺഗ്രസ്സ്)
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BOOM also received the same video on its WhatsApp tipline number (7700906588) with a verification request.
Fact Check
BOOM performed a related keyword search to find out details of the said incident and found that the original version of the same video was uploaded on YouTube on March 5, 2017.
The video then was uploaded with a caption, "LIFTF 2017 - Congress Bribing Voters In Imphal, Manipur? VIDEO GOES VIRAL !"
Upon close observation, we noticed that a woman in the viral video can be seen holding a placard that reads Ward 5 (KMC). We also heard that people are speaking in Meitei in the original video.
Meitei is a language predominantly spoken in the north-eastern state Manipur.
Taking a cue, we ran a search for 'KMC in Manipur' and found that the abbreviation stands for "Kakching Municipal Council" in Thoubal district of the state. The legislative assembly elections in Manipur were held on March 4 and March 8 that year.
We also found that the audio of Rahul Gandhi's address in the viral video was taken from the Congress leader's speech at a 2017 rally in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
The video was uploaded on October 23, 2017, on Rahul Gandhi's official YouTube channel.
The same portion which has been spliced and included in the viral video can be heard from 2:25 minutes time stamp.
