Not Rahul Gandhi – MP who Kiren Rijiju ridicules in viral video for sleeping in House is not the leader of Opposition – Alt News

A video showing Union minister Kiren Rijiju purportedly waking up Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a session in the Lok Sabha went viral this week. In the video, Rijiju is heard jokingly saying, “This is why I tell you, dada, don’t talk all the time—you’ll fall asleep.”

The video was shared by verified X user @SaffronSunanda who claimed that it was Rahul Gandhi who had fallen asleep. She remarked, in her post, “…Rahul Gandhi is just a Joke in Indian Politics”. (Archive)

This man sleeps during Parliament proceedings and debates and he wants to become Prime Minister of India.

Rahul Gandhi is just a Joke in Indian Politics. pic.twitter.com/paANOZnWv1

— Sunanda Roy 👑 (@SaffronSunanda) December 3, 2024

The post was then amplified by actor Paresh Rawal. Resharing the video, he wrote, “He is like a Bad joke with no Punch line!” referring to the Leader of Opposition. The post was later deleted. (Archive)

Several other Right-wing influencers amplified it. (Archives, 1, 2, 3, 4)

Upon checking, we found that this was not the first time this video went viral. In August, media outlet WION published a similar video as a Facebook reel titled, “Rahul Gandhi Caught Sleeping in Lok Sabha?”

On August 9, news channel NDTV published a video on its official YouTube channel with the title “Rahul Gandhi Sleeping In Lok Sabha | Giriraj Singh Reacts After Opposition MP Caught Sleeping In LS”. The previous day, Kerala-based media outlet Asianet News also published the same with the headline “Viral | Rahul Gandhi Caught Sleeping During Waqf Discussion? Rijiju & Giriraj Singh React”. However, neither of the videos shows Rahul Gandhi.

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Who Was Kiren Rijiju Addressing?

Alt News found that the viral video had been been clipped from Parliamentary proceedings of Lok Sabha’s Monsoon session held on August 8 where the Union minister of parliamentary and minority affairs  introduced the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. A nine-hour-long video of the proceedings is available on news agency ANI’s YouTube channel. The chain of events seen in the viral video took place at the 4:01:13-minute mark.

Here, Rijiju was defending the Bill, against which Opposition leaders had raised concerns. “Dada was asking me if there are any Muslims in my constituency. There are many Muslim voters in my constituency…” he says just as BJP MP and Union minister of textiles Giriraj Singh, seated nearby, quips, “So gaye, so gaye…” (He has fallen asleep). This prompted laughter and ridicule from the treasury benches. Rijiju then jested, “This is why I tell you, dada, don’t talk all the time—you’ll fall asleep.”

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also commented, “If there’s a speech going on, will you go to sleep in the House?”

Rijiju further quipped, “I am not going to ask him what he was doing last night,” which led to uproar and protests from the Opposition.

During this entire exchange, not once did the camera focus on Rahul Gandhi.

In its fact-check report, Kerala-based publication Mathrubhumi contacted its Delhi bureau chief, Manoj Menon, who was present during the session. Menon said that it was senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy who had dozed off. However, it should be noted that the camera did not pan to any Opposition member while Rijiju spoke.

However, it is worth noting that ‘Dada’ is a term of endearment generally used for Bengali men.

Rahul Gandhi’s Clip From the Same Day

After carefully watching that day’s Parliamentary proceedings, Alt News found that the clip of Rahul Gandhi that is seen in the viral video is from same day (August 8). At the 3:17:45-minute mark of the ANI video, Rahul Gandhi can be seen sitting in the same position—head tilted to the side and arm stretched out against the backrest. In the viral clip, Gandhi’s image from this portion has been highly magnified, resulting in a noticeable degradation of image quality. This makes it hard to determine whether the Congress leader was simply looking down or asleep. Below is a screengrab of the moment.

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Also, the three-second clip was looped repeatedly in the viral video, creating the false impression that the moment lasted longer than it actually did.

It’s also important to remember here that the camera focuses on Rahul Gandhi in the above position during Rijiju’s speech on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. However, in the viral video, the Opposition leader’s clip has been juxtaposed with Rijiju’s responses on the Bill, which actually happened later in the day. For clarity, look at the screengrabs below. The image on the left, showing Rahul Gandhi, is from 14:17 hours. The image on the right, where Rijiju and Giriraj Singh are pointing to the sleeping MP is from 15:01 hours.

So, the incidents happened at different times but were edited to make it seem like they were unfolding at the same time.

Also, Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the Opposition—a position that is often under constant scrutiny—and seated prominently at the front of the Opposition benches. It’s unlikely that him falling asleep during proceedings would have gone unnoticed by cameras in the House. We found no reports or videos since August that can conclusively show or indicate that it was Rahul Gandhi who had fallen asleep. Reports by news outlets such as The Indian Express as well as news agency ANI referred to whoever had fallen asleep simply as MP or an ‘Opposition MP’.

To sum it up, the video of Kiren Rijiju addressing and ridiculing an Opposition MP for falling asleep during House proceedings with the claim that the sleeping MP is Rahul Gandhi is misleading. A clip of Gandhi was edited into the video to create the false impression that Rijiju’s remarks against a sleeping MP were addressed to him.

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