Fact Check: Clipped video falsely viral as Mallikarjun Kharge threatening to give Hindus assets to Muslims

Hyderabad: A video clip purportedly showing Congress’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge threatening Hindus with the distribution of their properties to Muslims is circulating on social media.

In the video, he is heard saying, “Do you know what Congress is doing? Congress members are breaking into your homes, breaking open your cupboards, taking your money, and distributing it to others, especially Muslims who have more children. If you have fewer children, what can I do about that?”

An X user shared the video and wrote, “Congress people will break into your house, break the cupboard, take out the money and distribute it among Muslims who have more children. And if Hindus have fewer children, what can I do about it?” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The full version of the clip shows Kharge attributing the statement to PM Modi, who had accused the Congress of looting Hindu properties and distributing them to Muslims during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.

We conducted a keyword search and came across a public address of Kharge live-streamed on the Congress party’s official YouTube channel on May 3, 2024, titled “Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge addresses the public in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.”

The video shows Kharge talking about the promises made in the Congress manifesto. At 31:50 minutes into the speech, while discussing the caste census, Kharge says that the census will be conducted to find out the number of graduates in each community and their income.

After this comes the part of the viral clip where Kharge says, “Then Modi Sahab said, “Do you know what Congress is doing? Congress members are breaking into your homes, breaking open your cupboards, taking your money, and distributing it to others, especially Muslims who have more children. If you (Hindus) have fewer children, what can I do about that?”

It is clear from the full excerpt that in the longer version of the video, Kharge was explaining why Congress had promised to conduct a caste census in its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and he was referencing the accusations made by PM Modi against Congress regarding this promise. The viral clip omits Kharge’s attribution to PM Modi, presenting it in a way that makes it seem as though Kharge is threatening Hindus of Congress looting them and distributing the loot to Muslims.

We also found a report from The Hindu dated April 21, 2024, stating that PM Modi, while criticising Congress’s promise to address wealth and income inequality in its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, accused the party of planning to distribute people’s property, land, and gold among Muslims if it came to power at the Centre while addressing an election meeting in Rajasthan’s Banswara district on April 21, 2024.

In response to PM Modi’s criticism, Kharge wrote a letter on April 25, stating that Congress promises to address inequality between the rich and the poor, and accused Modi of deliberately framing it as a Hindu-Muslim issue. He emphasised that the Congress manifesto is for the poor, regardless of whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or Sikh, and urged Modi not to divide the nation.

Hence, we conclude that the viral clip is clipped and does not show Kharge’s attribution to PM Modi making allegations on Congress.