schema:text
| - Fact Check: No, Rahul Gandhi has not retracted from the promise of loan waiver
The video has been made with clubbing two clips to convey misleading message.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Rahul Gandhi has not gone back on his promise of loan waiver and the video is misleading.
The issue of farm loan waiver is said to be one of the main factors which contributed to the victory of Congress in assembly elections. But is Congress president Rahul Gandhi retracting from the promise of loan waiver within 10 days, even before the new Congress governments are formed in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh? This is being claimed by thousands of people on social media. The video has been made with clubbing two clips to convey misleading message.
Two well-known right-wing Facebook pages - ModiNama and Nation with NaMo -- put up videos claiming how Rahul has already retracted from his statement on loan waiver. The video being shared by these pages has been made putting together two separate video clips. The first clip is from Rahul's election speech in Chhattisgarh and the second clip is from the press conference in New Delhi post elections result on Tuesday.
The message in ModiNama video reads: "Waade se palte Rahul (Rahul retracts from his promises)". The 43-second-long video carries "before and after" videos of Rahul with a message, "Jeet ke 24 ghante ke andar hi dikha Pappu ke asli rang (Within 24 hours, Pappu (Rahul) shows his true colours".
The Nation with NaMo page also put up similar video of Rahul with a caption: "Rahul Gandhi goes back on loan waiver promise 24 hours after election results".
In the first window of the ModiNama page, the video clip with a caption, "Chunav jitne se pehle", shows a portion of Rahul's election speech. Here, he promised to waive off farmers' loan within 10 days if the Congress comes to power.
In the second window, the video with a caption, "Chunav jitne ke baad", shows a small portion of the Congress president's press conference where he begins by saying, "Karz maafi solution nahin hai..." (loan waiver is not the solution).
This post has been already been shared on Facebook more than 22,000 times at the time of filing the story. ModiNama has nearly 19 lakh followers.
India Today's Fact Check found the ModiNama post to be misleading.
In his election campaigns, Rahul had promised to waive off farmers' loan within 10 days after coming to power. In the post-victory press conference too Rahul reiterated the same promise, but at the same time he mentioned that "loan waiver" is not the solution for farmers' distress in the country. He said it is only a "supporting step".
The first portion of the viral video has been taken from Rahul's recent election speech in Chhattisgarh. Here, he attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "failing to waive off farmers' loan" and then promised that the Congress would waive off loan within 10 days of coming into power.
The second portion has been taken from the press conference of Rahul Gandhi which can be seen here.
At 14th minute in the press conference video, Rahul Gandhi reiterated his promise of the loan waiver and said the process will start immediately after the formation of the governments.
However, replying to a question about loan waiver as a tool for winning elections, Rahul said, "I have said this in my elections speeches too that loan waiver is a supporting step. Loan waiver is not the solution. Solution to farmers' distress will be a much complex process. Solution will come by building infrastructure and technologies for farmers."
It is from this portion of Rahul's reply that the line "loan waiver is not the solution" has been selectively picked up to use in the misleading video.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|