Did Rahul Gandhi say he does not care about truth and only wants power?

Hyderabad: A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying he wants power and not the truth is going viral on social media.

In the video, he can be heard saying, "I only want power, and I have nothing to do with the truth. Truth be damned. Just get me the chair."

Click here to see the post.

NewsMeter noticed that people commenting on the post said the video was edited and that they cannot be fooled anymore. We also noticed abrupt cuts in the video.

We ran a keyword search to find if Rahul Gandhi has said he wants only power and doesn't care about the truth. The results did not yield any news reports. If he had made such a statement in public, the media would have reported it.

Further, we performed a reverse image search of the video's keyframe and found a video 30-minute video uploaded on the Congress party's YouTube channel on 12 December 2021. It is titled "Shri Rahul Gandhi addresses the 'Mehangai Hatao Maha Rally' in Jaipur, Rajasthan."

In the video, Rahul Gandhi speaks on unemployment and inflation, and he also speaks on the difference between Hindus and Hindutva. Referring to the ideology of BJP, at around the 11.29-minute mark, he says, "Hindutvavadis want power at any cost. Mahatma Gandhi had said, "I want the truth, I search for the truth, I do not want power." On the contrary, they (BJP) say, "I want power, I have nothing to do with the truth, truth be damned, just get me the chair (power)…"

However, the viral video only shows Rahul Gandhi saying, "I want power, I have nothing to do with the truth, truth be damned, just get me the chair (power)," misleading the public without providing the full context.

Rahul Gandhi's speech was also published by Zee Rajasthan and Navbharat Times.

From this, it is evident that part of Rahul Gandhi's speech has been taken without context to mislead the public. Hence, we conclude that the viral video is misleading.