Old Clip Viral To Claim Rahul Gandhi Was Recently Questioned by Kashmiri Pandits

The footage is from 2019 when a female spoke with Rahul Gandhi regarding the situation of Kashmiris.

Fact-Check: This clip is from 2019 and not recent.

(Source: The Quint) 

Amid the ongoing assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, a video of a woman confronting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with tears in her eyes is circulating on social media.

• It is being claimed that the woman, who is a Kashmiri Hindu living abroad, is questioning Gandhi about his opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on matters of Kashmir.

What does the woman say?: "Little children are unable to go out. My brother is a heart patient, he stepped out to look for his kids, but his family member had no idea where he is for the past 10 days. We are in trouble."

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 233.8K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: The video is from 24 August 2019, showing Gandhi and other leaders trying to visit Srinagar. However, the leaders were prohibited from leaving the airport.

• The lady approached Gandhi explain the condition of the Kashmiri people under lockdown following the repeal of Article 370.

What we found: While doing a keyword search, we found a number of news articles from August 2019 that featured this video.

• According to a Scroll report, the event occurred as Gandhi was returning to New Delhi after being denied entry to Srinagar on 24 August 2019, citing security reasons.

• The report noted that a woman spoke about the impact of the lockdown imposed in Kashmir since 5 August 2019 following the revocation of Article 370 in the state.

The link to the report is here. 

(Source: Scroll) 

• Similarly, the Indian Express also reported on this issue in 2019. The report mentioned that several leaders as Gandhi, late Sitaram Yechury, Ghulam Nabi Azad and other opposition leaders had gone to Srinagar to assess the situation but were denied entry.

• The Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared the video on her official X account on 25 August 2019. She criticised the union government's move to abolish Article 370 in Kashmir, resulting in a lockdown.

• She wrote, "How long is this going to continue?This is one out of millions of people who are being silenced and crushed in the name of “Nationalism”. For those who accuse the opposition of ‘politicising’ this issue" (sic.)

This video also went viral in 2022 and is being shared again. You can view those claims here and here.

Conclusion: An old video from 2019 is being shared with a misleading claim that a Kashmiri Pandit woman "ripped off" Rahul Gandhi.

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