Fact Check: Statement of Tejashwi Yadav attacking PM Modi misattributed to Rahul Gandhi
The statement was made by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and Bihar’s former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, during the INDIA alliance rally on March 17.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 19 March 2024 10:30 AM GMT
Screengrab of the News24 X post.
Claim: Rahul Gandhi said that Lalu ji is still ready to give medicine to Modi ji during the INDIA alliance rally in Mumbai
Fact: The statement was made by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and Bihar’s former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, during the INDIA alliance rally on March 17.
Hyderabad: A statement attributed to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi taking a dig at prime minister Narendra Modi is doing rounds on social media.
News24, on their X profile, shared an alleged quote from Rahul: “We are not going to be afraid but going to fight. BJP people drink energy drinks and stand in front of us.”
“Lalu Yadav is still ready to give medicine (fight) to Modi ji,” reads the caption to the post, attributing it to Rahul. Click here and here to view the archived posts.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the statement was made by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and Bihar’s former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, during the INDIA alliance rally on March 17.
Former India Today journalist Supriya Bhardwaj, commenting on the News 24 post, said that the statement was given by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, not Rahul Gandhi. She also shared a clip of Yadav from the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Naya Yatra culmination public meeting, saying that when the Opposition raises the issues of inflation and unemployment, the folks from the BJP drink energy drinks and abuse them.
Click here to view the archived post.
With this cue, we ran a keyword search and came across a 2.56-minute video published by Aaj Tak on March 18, titled ‘Some people of BJP drink energy drinks and abuse us.’
The video shows Tejashwi Yadav attacking BJP and PM Modi. He could be heard saying, “When we raise the questions of two crore jobs and promise of 15 lakhs. Media and a few BJP folks drink energy drinks and abuse us. More than 10 lakh people attended our Jan Vishwas rally in Patna. And today after seeing this huge public gathering, people in the media and BJP will again have to intake energy drinks. People sitting here going to be not scared; we will fight and fight for you (pointing towards the crowd). We have to fight your fight that is why I have come here with the message of Lalu Ji. Doctors have advised him to rest, but Lalu Ji is still ready to treat Modi Ji. His hair has grown grey fighting BJP, but no matter how much they intimidate, he will never cow down.”
It is evident from the above excerpt that the statement of Tejashwi Yadav has been misattributed to Rahul Gandhi.
We also found the 11:29-minute speech of Tejashwi Yadav posted by the official Facebook account of the Congress party on March 17.
The statement misattributed to Rahul Gandhi can be found between the 4-5:15 minute timestamp. Hence, we conclude that the statement made by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has been misattributed to Rahul Gandhi.
