Indian politician Tejashwi Yadav's critical comments about PM Modi misattributed to Rahul Gandhi

What's the claim?

A statement allegedly given by Indian politician and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is going viral on social media ahead of the upcoming general elections. In the alleged statement, Gandhi implies that former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav can easily take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Some social media users, including the Hindi news channel, News24, shared the purported statement by Gandhi in Hindi on X (formerly Twitter). The purported statement translates to: "Lalu Yadav is ready to give medicine to Modi even today." Additionally, some posts included a graphic featuring Gandhi's photo with his name below, along with a Hindi caption: "We are not going to be afraid but going to fight. BJP people drink energy drinks and stand in front of us," attributing it again to Gandhi.

The claim surfaced within days of INDIA bloc leaders, including Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, MK Stalin, Tejashwi Yadav, and Farooq Abdullah, among others, coming together to mark the end of Congress’ Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Mumbai on March 17.

One of the posts sharing the claim amassed 51,100 views at the time of writing. Archived versions of such posts can be found here, here, and here.

(Screenshot of X posts. Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's former deputy CM, made these statements, not Gandhi, during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra's rally in Mumbai.

What did we find?

We came across an 11-minute and 28-second video uploaded on YouTube by news channel Aaj Tak, featuring a Hindi caption that translates to, "INDIA Alliance Rally: Tejashwi taunts PM - Lalu Yadav is ready to give medicine to Modi ji even today." This video showcases Tejashwi Yadav, the former deputy CM of Bihar, speaking on stage at the Bharat Jodo Nyay rally in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on March 17.

Source: YouTube

In this video, from around the 4-minute mark to about the 5:40 timestamp, Yadav talks about how his father and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav can take on PM Modi. He says, "We, along with Rahul Gandhi, raise questions. When we raise questions about the two crore jobs and the promise of 15 lakhs, the media and a few BJP folks drink energy drinks and criticize us. More than 10 lakh people attended our Jan Vishwas rally in Patna. Today, after witnessing this massive public gathering, the media and BJP will have to consume energy drinks again. The people sitting here will not be scared; we will fight for you. We have to fight our battles, and that's why I'm here with Lalu Ji's message. Doctors have advised him to rest, but Lalu His hair has turned grey fighting the BJP, but is still ready to give medicine to Modi Ji even today, no matter how much they intimidate him, he will never bow down."

The Congress party also uploaded this video featuring Yadav on their official X account. Yadav's remarks can be heard from the 4:00 mark in this X video.

(Source: Congress/X)

The Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) official Facebook page also posted the clip from the Bharat Jodo Nyay rally in Mumbai where Tejashwi Yadav can be heard saying, “...Lalu Yadav is ready to give medicine to Modi even today…” The caption in Hindi further explained Tejashwi's 'medicine' comment stating that Lalu Prasad Yadav is ever ready to treat those who spread communal hatred in the country.

(Source: RJD/Facebook)

What did Rahul Gandhi say?

Upon thorough examination of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Manzil - INDIA Rally video-streamed from Mumbai by the official YouTube account of the Indian National Congress, we found that Gandhi's speech, spanning from 1:36:00 to 2:09:00, did not include the alleged statements.

(Source:YouTube)

Gandhi commenced his address by extending gratitude and reflecting on the journey (during Bharat jodo yatra last year and the recent Bharat jodo Naya yatra) from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering 4000 kilometers, underscoring key issues such as unemployment, inflation, and poverty.

However, it is true that while Tejaswi Yadav made the viral statement, many leaders of the INDIA alliance, including Rahul Gandhi, were sitting on the stage listening to the former's speech.

The verdict

The statements attributed to Rahul Gandhi were actually made by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's son and Bihar's former deputy CM, Tejashwi Yadav. Therefore, the claim is false.