Does This Video Show Rahul Gandhi Defending Kanhaiya Lal’s Killers? No!

The video shows Gandhi talking about those who attacked his office at Wayanad, Kerala, in June 2022.

A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is being shared with a claim that it shows him making remarks on the killing of Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan's Udaipur.

• The claim comes in the backdrop of assembly elections in the state.

What are users claiming?: Those sharing the video captioned it, "Look at the criminal grin on the face of #RahulGandhi while downplaying barbaric beheading of #KanhaiyaLal ji and calling monsters’ act as silly stuff. He also pardoned both killers."

The video had more than 13,000 views on the platform at the time the report was being written. (More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The video dates back to July 2022 does not show Gandhi asking people to forgive the killers of Kanhaiya Lal. It shows him talking about the people who vandalised his office at Wayanad, Kerala in June 2022.

What led us to the truth?: On performing a keyword search, we performed a news report in The Times of India that said a police complaint has been filed against a television anchor and several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly distorting Gandhi's comments.

• It mentioned that Gandhi's comments on his office being attacked in Wayanad were distorted to "incite communal disharmony" over Kanhaiya Lal's killing.

• Towards the end of the report, we found Gandhi's statement about the attack on his Wayanad's office. He could be seen referring to the attackers as "children" and forgiving them for their actions.

Other sources: We came across a video, which showed similar visuals as the viral one, uploaded on the official YouTube of News18 Kerala.

• The video was uploaded on 2 July 2022 and was titled, "Rahul Gandhi Office Attacked: "I have no anger towards the children who did this"; says Rahul Gandhi."

• At around the 1:00 timestamp, while responding to a journalist's question about the attack on his Wayanad office, Gandhi could be heard saying, "First of all, it is my office, but before being my office, it's the office of people of Wayanad. This is the office of the voice of the people of Wayanad. So, it's quite an unfortunate thing that has been done."

"Everywhere in the country you see the idea that violence will resolve problems but violence never resolves problems. However, the children who did this, I mean they are also children. So, it's not fine, it's not a good thing to do. They have acted in an irresponsible way. I don't have any anger or hostility towards them, they have done a silly thing. So we should leave it at that."

Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader

• At this point, a reporter interrupted Gandhi and said, "You are calling them children even though they barged and..".

• Gandhi quickly responded by saying, "They are kids, I don't think they sort of understand the consequences of these types of things. I think we should be forgiving as far as they are concerned."

A recurring claim: The Quint had fact-checked the same claim in 2022, when Zee News uploaded visuals from the same interview claiming that it showed Gandhi defending the killers of Kanhaiya Lal. The media organisation later apologised for airing the video with a misleading claim.

Conclusion: It is clear that the video of Rahul Gandhi talking about people who allegedly attacked his Wayanad office is being shared with a misleading context.

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