A short video of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is being shared where he can be heard speaking against his party.
What does Kharge say?: He says, “Congress party is dividing the country, It is dividing it in the name of caste.”
What is the context?: Congress has vehemently advocated for a caste-based census in the country and fired up the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not actively looking into it.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is this true?: The claim is false as the video has been cropped and presented out of context.
- In the longer version of the video, Kharge can be heard speaking about the importance and demand for a caste-based census in the country during his speech in Aurangabad, Bihar as a part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
- We came across a 30-minute long video on Congress’ official YouTube channel from 15 February.
- It was uploaded with the title, “In Bihar, Mallikarjun Kharge lambasted BJP including PM Modi and Nitish Kumar, listen to the speech LIVE.” (sic.)
We tried identifying the portion in the viral video and found the following:
- 11:53 minutes onwards, Kharge starts speaking about demand for a caste-based census and states that it will be undertaken should Congress form the government in the Lok Sabha elections.
- Then, he speaks about the importance of a caste-based census. 12:24 minutes onwards, Kharge said, “This is how we will find out valuable information about various communities in the country. This will help us find out how much communities have gained since independence.”
- He added, “Caste-based census will reveal the number of graduates from Backward classes, Scheduled caste and tribes and other minorities in the country.”
- Further, he said that there are poor people in the upper castes and the census will show their growth too. Kharge also said that the number of landowners will also be revealed in the census.
- 13:12 minutes is the portion that is mentioned in the viral video. Kharge said, “Modi always says that Congress divides the country. It is dividing the country on the basis of caste.”
- After saying this, he added, “What are we doing? We simply want to give justice to the people. After 2011, the 2021 census report is still not published. Why?”
- The Congress party also published a transcript of Kharge’s speech in Aurangabad on their website, which also mentions the context of the words spoken in the viral video.
Here is portion mentioned in the viral video.
(Source: INC/Screenshot)
It is evident that Mallikarjun Kharge was speaking about Congress’ demand and promise of a caste-based census and attacking the PM Modi-led government.
Conclusion: Clearly, the viral video has been cropped to falsely claim that Mallikarjun Kharge spoke against his party and said that it divides the country on the basis of caste.
This story was originally published by The Quint and republished by OrissaPOST as part of the Shakti Collective.
