No, Rahul Gandhi did not admit to pushing BJP MPs on Parliament premises; claim by BJP leaders false – Alt News

The last week of Parliament’s Winter Session, which began on November 25, has been nothing short of dramatic. With the Opposition staging protests against Union home minister Amit Shah’s remarks on B R Ambedkar, BJP leaders have now gone up in arms against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on the alleged shoving and jostling outside the Parliament on Thursday where some MPs were hurt.

During protests by both NDA and the Opposition on Thursday and the resulting chaos outside the Parliament building, both sides allege that they were pushed, shoved and suffered injuries. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that he suffered an injury to his knee and wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker to look into the matter. Meanwhile, two BJP MPs, Pratap Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput, were also hurt and hospitalized as they sustained injuries to the head. They have reportedly been admitted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lal Hospital.

Against this backdrop, Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur shared a video of Rahul Gandhi on X (formerly Twitter) where the latter is responding to reporters. In the video, Gandhi can be heard saying, “Dekhiye, haan kiya hai, kiya hai, magar thik hai… dhakka-mukki se humein kuch hota nahi hai.. Magar…” (See, yes it happened, it happened but it’s alright, we are not perturbed by scuffles… But…).

Thakur posted this with a Hindi caption that translates to: “Rahul Gandhi himself is admitting that he has pushed, and is shamelessly saying that nothing is achieved by pushing. Due to his push, a senior MP’s head got fractured, two MPs are admitted in hospital and Rahul ji is saying that nothing happens due to push. Arrogance, tyranny and dictatorship run in the veins of the Gandhi family…shameful.” (Archive)

राहुल गांधी ख़ुद मान रहे हैं कि उन्होंने धक्कामुक्की की है, और बड़ी बेशर्मी से कह रहे हैं कि धक्का मुक्की से कुछ नहीं होता।

इनके धक्के से एक वरिष्ठ सांसद का सर फट गया, दो सांसद अस्पताल में भर्ती हैं और राहुल जी कह रहे धक्के से कुछ नहीं होता।

अहंकार, अत्याचार और तानाशाही गांधी… pic.twitter.com/MSD8UZey55

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) December 19, 2024

BJP leader Amit Malviya, who is in-charge of the party’s information technology cell, also shared the same video on X claiming “Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi admits on camera to having assaulted BJP MP Pratap Sarangi…” (Archive)

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi admits on camera to having assaulted BJP MP Pratap Sarangi, leaving him grievously injured. This calls for criminal charges against him. There is overwhelming evidence, video footage and his own admission to convict Rahul Gandhi. The law must… pic.twitter.com/WSxCDD23Pz

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 19, 2024

BJP’s Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya also posted the same on X with the claim that Rahul Gandhi admitted to manhandling BJP MPs. (Archive)

After admitting to manhandling, Shri Rahul Gandhi shamelessly dismisses his aggressive behaviour by saying, “Nothing happens with a push.”

It’s shameful that he downplays an incident that has caused a head injury to a senior MP and two MPs being hospitalized, all due to his… pic.twitter.com/mmtN0ly8Hs

— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) December 19, 2024

The same video and the claim that Gandhi “admitted” to assaulting BJP MPs was also amplified by BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla (@Shehzad_Ind, the party’s Gujarat media co-chief Zubin Ashara (@zubinashara) as well as the BJP’s Assam X handle (@BJP4Assam). (Archives 1, 2, 3).

X user Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) who identifies as a Hindu Rights Activist and shares communal propaganda and misinformation regularly, also claimed the same. (Archive) 

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Needless to say, the posts and Rahul Gandhi’s video are went viral across social media platforms after BJP MP Pratap Sarangi claimed that Gandhi had pushed an MP who fell on him causing him to fall down. “I was standing near the stairs when Rahul Gandhi came and pushed an MP who then fell on me…” he told news agency ANI.

Fact Check

We found that the viral video being shared by BJP leaders is clipped from a slightly longer video of Rahul Gandhi on the Parliament premises shared by ANI. (Archive)

#WATCH | Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi says, “This might be on your camera. I was trying to go inside through the Parliament entrance, BJP MPs were trying to stop me, push me and threaten me. So this happened…Yes, this has happened (Mallikarjun Kharge being pushed). But we do not… https://t.co/q1RSr2BWqu pic.twitter.com/ZKDWbIY6D6

— ANI (@ANI) December 19, 2024

On carefully listening to the video, we found that Rahul Gandhi was responding to reporters asking him about what happened during the scuffle. When a reporter specifically asks him “Kharge ji ke saath dhakka-mukki hui hai?” (Was Kharge ji subjected to jostling and shoving?), Rahul Gandhi responds by saying “… Haan kiya hai, kiya hai, magar thik hai… dhakka-mukki se humein kuch hota nahi hai…” (Yes, it happened, it happened, but it’s fine… the pushing and shoving does not affect us).

Below is a slowed-down clip of the same exchange captured by the Press Trust of India (PTI) where the question can be clearly heard.

Note that ANI’s post on X and its longer report (screenshot below) with the same video also clearly specify that Rahul Gandhi’s response was to a question on Kharge being pushed. There is no reference of him admitting to the pushing anyone.

To sum up, Alt News found the claim by BJP leaders that Rahul Gandhi admitted to pushing BJP leaders is false and misleading. The video shared by them has been taken out of context. The Congress leader was actually responding to a reporter’s query on Mallikarjun Kharge being pushed.

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