No, Rahul Gandhi did not refuse to perform aarti; viral claim is false

A video of Rahul Gandhi from a temple is being shared on social media with the claim that Gandhi refused to perform Aarti. The viral video surfaced at the onset of Durga Puja festivities being celebrated across the country.

In the video, Rahul Gandhi is seen at a Durga puja aarti standing between two persons, and the man standing on one side after performing the aarti directly passes the aarti light to the person standing on another side.

"The way Rahul Gandhi refused to take Aarti and perform the rituals... He again proved from which community he belongs," wrote a Twitter user who shared the video.

Click here to view the post.

Several users have shared the video making the same claim. (Click here and here to view the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search of the video's keyframe and found a longer version of the video posted on Twitter on 27 September 2017 by Journalist Supriya Bhardwaj of India Today, who covers the congress beat.

In this video, Rahul Gandhi can be seen performing the aarti at the very beginning and he then passes the light to Ashok Gehlot. This portion of the video has been clipped from the viral video. Supriya Bhardwaj has also stated in the tweet that Rahul Gandhi had performed puja at Garba pandal in Rajkot.

Rahul Gandhi had also shared pictures of the puja event on 7 September 2017 along with the caption, "The day ends well with Garba in Rajkot." In one of the pictures, he can be seen performing aarti.

The news agency, ANI had also shared two pictures of Rahul Gandhi performing aarti during the event.

Hence, the claim of Rahul Gandhi refusing to perform aarti is false.