2018 video of Mohan Bhagwat praising Congress’ role in India's Independence shared as recent

What is the claim?

A video of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat praising the role of Congress in India's independence is being widely shared on social media with a claim that he made the statement after the fifth phase of voting for the Indian general elections concluded on May 20. Social media users have claimed that Bhagwat recognized Congress' contribution after sensing a possible change in the government after the elections.

In the now-viral video, Bhagwat can be heard saying, "The people in our country have little political awareness. They do not know much about the significance of who holds power. There should be political awareness among the people of this country. And that is why a major movement in the form of the Congress emerged across the country. It also had many great men who continue to inspire our lives today. And that movement set the common people on the path to freedom. It contributed majorly to our independence movement."

This video was shared by Hitendra Pithadiya, the President of the Gujarat Congress SC Cell, with the caption, "After the fifth phase, even RSS' Mohan Bhagwat started remembering Congress' contribution.!! Modi is going.. INDIA's government is coming." An archive version of the post can be seen here. 

Screenshot of the Mohan Bagawat video circulating online. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

This video was also shared by senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh on May 21, 2024, asking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to listen to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks about the Congress. While he did not make any claims about the video, several users shared his post in the context of the current elections. Archives of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here. 

However, we found that this video is from September 2018, when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat spoke about the role of Congress in India's independence during a conference at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

How did we find this out? 

The viral video carried the logos of ‘HT’ (Hindustan Times) and news agency ANI. Using this as a cue, we found the original video (archive here) uploaded on the YouTube channel of Hindustan Times on September 18, 2018. We can also see the date in the top left corner of the video below the location text.

The video was recorded at a three-day lecture series organized by the RSS in New Delhi. At this event, Bhagwat gave a speech and said that the Congress played a significant role in India’s freedom movement and gave India several great personalities.

At the 18-second mark in the video, Bhagwat can be heard making the same remark.  

The same video (archive here) was also uploaded on ANI's YouTube channel on September 18, 2018. 

Bhagwat inaugurated the event on September 17, 2018, and his full speech from September 18 (archive here) can also be heard on the YouTube channel of Sansad TV. 

During his speech, the RSS chief also spoke about the revolution of 1857 and the subsequent freedom movements that emerged in the country. He spoke about the Gadar Revolution and Subhash Chandra Bose's armed struggle. He then goes on to talk about the Congress party. The relevant part can be seen between 18:58 to 23:20 in the video.

The verdict

A speech given by Mohan Bhagwatin 2018 has been shared with a misleading claim that the RSS chief acknowledged the Congress’ role in India’s freedom struggle after the fifth phase of voting during the Indian general elections. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.