A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying, "यह देश तपस्वियों का देश है, पुजारियों का नहीं है। यह इस देश की सच्चाई है" [Translation: This is a country of ascetics, not priests, that is the reality of this country] is being shared on social media, claiming that Gandhi said he had a problem with priests.
Who are sharing this clip?: Amit Malviya, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) IT department in-charge, BJP Haryana's verified Twitter account, BJP Jharkhand state president Deepak Prasad and BJP UP social media convener Saurabh Marodia shared the video with a claim in Hindi, which said Gandhi now had a problem with priests.
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An archive of this tweet can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Is it true?: Although Rahul Gandhi did say the statement in question, it has more context to it.
At a press conference during the Bharat Jodo Yatra's Haryana leg, Gandhi likened the Congress party, along with farmers, labourers and poor hardworking Indians to tapasvis (ascetics), and compared the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP and their followers to pujaris (priests), claiming that they were forcing people to worship them.
While answering a question about his experience during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi said that India was a country of ascetics and not priests or worshippers.
How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information on the video.
It led us to a video report by The Economic Times, which mentioned that a row had erupted over Rahul Gandhi's remarks regarding ascetics and priests at a press conference during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana's Kurukshetra.
Taking a cue from this, we looked for the video on Congress' verified YouTube channel, where we found one of a press conference published on 8 January.
During the conference, Gandhi responded to journalists' queries regarding the objectives of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, his personal growth over its course, and the atmosphere of fear and hatred in the country.
He spoke at length about the Congress party's aims, mentioning that the party has historically "never believed in making people fight each other."
Gandhi went on to talk about how Congress party members, labourers, farmers and the poor people in the country were like tapasvis (ascetics), who worked hard and toiled for a good outcome, likening the RSS and BJP to pujaris (priests) who forced people to worship them and only rewarded the ones who did.
At the 36:20 minutes mark into the video of the conference, a journalist said Gandhi had spoken about the Congress party believing in asceticism, asking whether Gandhi considered himself a tapasvi now.
Responding to this question, Gandhi said that he has always been an ascetic and still was one.
He brought up how people kept talking about how many kilometres he had walked during the Yatra but never spoke about how many kilometres the average Indian farmer or labourer had walked during their lives.
He said, "Why don't we say, look how many kilometres a labourer has walked? That is because we don't respect tapasya, but I do. This is the change I want to bring."
"This is a country of tapasvis, not pujaris. And like I said, if this country has to become a superpower, we have to respect tapasvis and producers; you'll have to embrace them and open bank doors for them and protect them."Rahul Gandhi at a press conference in Haryana during the Bharat Jodo Yatra
Conclusion: Rahul Gandhi did not express hate for priests as claimed.
In the longer version of the video, he compared India's poor, hard-working population to ascetics and said that India was a country of tapasvis, and not like the BJP and RSS, who were like pujaris (priests) who only rewarded the people who worshipped them.
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