A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi where he is speaking at a public event is being shared on social media platforms.
What does Gandhi say?: In the clip, Rahul Gandhi can be heard saying, ‘I am a tailor. I am not a fashion designer. You can show me any cloth and I can fully understand that cloth. This is my talent and passion and I understand that. However, that cloth was made by a tailor. That tailor is hidden in the rooms of that designer. Send the tailor to Paris and we will clap for him.”
What is the claim?: Those sharing have claimed that Rahul Gandhi described himself as a tailor.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
What is the truth?: This video is clipped.
This video is from a speech of Rahul Gandhi at the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Sammelan (conference) that was held on 11 June 2018.
In the longer version of the video, Gandhi was narrating an encounter that he had with a fashion designer.
How did we find out?: We divided the video into several keyframes and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
We came across a video of the OBC Sammelan on Congress’s YouTube page from 11 June 2018, which included the same visuals as the viral video.
2:34:40 seconds onwards, Gandhi began his speech by narrating a story about an Indian fashion designer who had gone to France and presented their clothes. Other designers ridiculed the Indian designer, but years later, he encountered one of those who had mocked him.
Rahul Gandhi said that a brown-skinned person made their way to a global platform and made the crowd uncomfortable, and hence, they laughed
From 2:38:52 seconds, Gandhi told the designer’s response who said, “Rahul ji, The world calls me a fashion designer, but I am not a fashion designer. I am a tailor. You can show me any cloth; just by seeing it, I can understand everything about it. How to cut it? How to arrange the attire on a person? Which colour should go where? That’s my talent and my work. I can understand it.”
Further, the Congress leader added on to the designer's reply and said that the person who went abroad from India’s side was not a tailor as they did not know anything about clothes.
At 2:40:41 seconds, Gandhi said in accordance to designer's reply, "The cloth he was holding, was so beautiful. Rahul Ji, the cloth was made by a tailor. The tailor was kept in a room behind the person (fashion designer). Bring out the tailor, and send him to France. We will clap and honour him." This portion is also in the viral video.
Gandhi ended the designer’s part of the response by saying, “It shows that in India, those who do the work are kept inside the room.”
Conclusion: A clipped video of Rahul Gandhi is being shared on the internet to falsely claim that he described himself as a tailor.
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