Social media users are sharing the video claiming that Rahul Gandhi himself said that 80 percent of rapes happen because of women.
The viral clip also appears to show Gandhi saying that rape happens in India but not in Bharat, followed by remarks about women being confined inside a cage, being controlled and not being allowed to work, while boys should be given complete freedom. The video is being used to suggest that Gandhi made these remarks as his own views on women and rape.
Fact check:
DFRAC investigation found the claim to be false. We did a reverse image search and found that the viral clip is from Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ event in Pune, where he spoke about women’s freedom, patriarchy, equality and the treatment of women in society. Rahul Gandhi was discussing patriarchy and women’s freedom.
During the Pune event, he spoke about women’s freedom and equality and criticised the mindset of treating women as subordinate to men.He also referred to the Manusmriti while discussing what he described as a patriarchal social structure in which women are treated as the property of their fathers, husbands or children.Thus, the controversial lines in the viral clip were part of a larger argument in which Gandhi was criticising what he described as discriminatory attitudes towards women.
The statements referenced by Rahul Gandhi have previously been attributed to Mohan Bhagwat and Manohar Lal Khattar. For further investigation we did a keyword based and found NDTV reporting the Mohan Bhagwat’s and Manohar Lal Khattar’s remarks in 2013 and 2018 respectively. The original speech shows that he was instead discussing statements attributed to other public figures and using them as examples of what he described as a patriarchal mindset.
Mohan Bhagwat’s 2013 remark
During a visit to Silchar in Assam in 2013, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat reportedly made a statement contrasting the incidence of rape in “India” and “Bharat.”The statement attracted significant criticism and was widely reported by media outlets at the time.
Rahul Gandhi referred to this earlier remark while explaining the mindset that he was criticising in his Pune speech.
Manohar Lal Khattar’s 2018 remark
The other statement referred to by Rahul Gandhi was attributed to Manohar Lal Khattar, who was Haryana’s Chief Minister at the time. In 2018, Khattar reportedly said that 80–90 percent of rape and molestation cases involved people who knew each other. He argued that people often know each other and spend considerable time together before a dispute subsequently results in an allegation of rape and the filing of an FIR.
Conclusion:
DFRAC’s investigation found that the viral video claiming Rahul Gandhi said that “80 percent of rapes happen because of women” and that women should be kept inside a cage is misleading.
| Claim Review | Rahul Gandhi Said 80% of Rapes Happen Because of Women |
| Claimed by | Facebook user |
| Fact check | Misleading |
Sources:
- NDTV Reports
- Rahul Gandhi Youtube Channel
