By Anmol Alphonso
A video purporting to show Rahul Gandhi saying the Congress party wants to destroy India's democracy and the Constitution while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would protect the same, is fake and has been created by altering the audio of the viral clip.
BOOM found that the video has been doctored by splicing and stitching together different parts of the audio. The original video shows Gandhi attacking the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the viral video, Gandhi appears to be saying, "Namaskar, I'm Rahul Gandhi, this election is about saving democracy and the Constitution. On the one hand, the Congress Party and I.N.D.I.A alliance are destroying it. On the other side, the RSS and BJP are saving the Constitution and democracy. While Congress has made 20-25 people billionaires, Modi ji aims to make millions of women and youth millionaires. Support BJP and RSS to save the Constitution. Press the button for Narendra Modi ji."
The video is being shared on Facebook with the misleading claim that Gandhi endorsed Modi.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that in the original video Rahul Gandhi states that the Congress party and I.N.D.I.A alliance are trying to save the Constitution and democracy.
We found that the viral video has several jump cuts, where the audio has been spliced and words have been swapped to make the false claim that Rahul Gandhi is asking people to vote for the BJP and Prime Minister Modi.
We also found that the original video was posted on April 25, 2024, with the caption, "In this election to protect the constitution and democracy, Coming out of the 'Mitra Kaal', in the election to form the 'Government of Indians'...Do your duty towards democracy. Come join the Congress Press the hand button!"
In the video below Gandhi says, "Namaskar, I'm Rahul Gandhi, this election is about saving democracy and the Constitution. On the one hand, the Congress Party and I.N.D.I.A alliance are saving it. On the other side, the RSS and BJP are destroying the Constitution and democracy. While Modiji has made 20-25 people billionaires, We aims to make millions of women and youth millionaires. We are going to provide legal MSP to farmers and waive off their loans, we are going to give laborers a minimum wage of 400 rupees, This is a manifesto to change the country, support the Congress to save the Constitution. Press the hand symbol button."
In the viral video, the parts where Gandhi talks about the Congress have been replaced with the word BJP and Modiji, and the part where he criticises the BJP, have been swapped with the word Congress.
The full video can be seen below:
Additionally, we also analysed the viral video using Itisaar, a a deepfake detection tool developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, which showed that it is not a deepfake, however the tool determined that the audio of the clip has been altered.
