Clipped video shows Rahul Gandhi saying India's population is Rs 140 crores

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya shared the video and wrote, "Imagine being accused of spending crores to malign Rahul Gandhi when all one has to do is listen to his comical speeches…" (Archive)

Click here to see the post.

BJP leaders Sambit Patra, Murari Mohan Jha, and several others shared the video mocking Mr. Gandhi. (Click here and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that Rahul Gandhi did make the gaffe but corrected himself immediately. The viral video is clipped and does not show the correction.

We skimmed through the comments on Malviya's post and found a longer version of the video posted by a member of the Congress Party. In this video, we found that Rahul Gandhi did refer to the country's population in "rupees" but immediately corrected the slip-up and said the population of the country is 140 crores.

Taking a cue from this, we found the extended version of the video published on the official YouTube channel of the Congress Party on 7 January. In this video, Rahul Gandhi speaks about economic inequality in India: "The population of the country is 140 crores, around 100 people are sitting on the stage. Now, I want to tell you a little bit about the economic situation of the country. The population of the country is 140 crore rupees, 140 crore people (he immediately corrects the mistake)."

Further, he does a comparison and says that the 100 richest people in India possess wealth equal to the wealth of half the population of India.

It is evident that the viral video is clipped and does not show the full context. Hence, we conclude that the viral video is misleading.