Fact Check: Did Rahul Gandhi say that no one respected him in 40 years? No, this claim is false.
Siddharth Urmil 
Claim
A speech given by the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress Party leader, Rahul Gandhi, is going viral on social media. In the speech, Gandhi can be heard saying that in the last 40 years, no one has respected him – the only exception was his father, who gave him honour and respect. Multiple users are sharing this video to mock Rahul Gandhi. A user named Manoj Srivastava shared this video, claiming it was from Ahmedabad, and wrote, “Ahmedabad – Comedy Show. In 40 years, not a single person gave me respect.”
Meanwhile, this video has also been shared by several other users. It can be seen here, here, here, and here.
Fact Check
To investigate the viral video, the DFRAC conducted a reverse image search. This search led to a discovery of a related post on Instagram. This post featured a short form video of Rahul Gandhi giving a speech. A hashtag was incorporated in the post saying, Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan (Constitution Protection Conference, meaning in English).
Subsequently, after knowing about the Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan, the DFRAC conducted a keyword search on the same, which led to a video on Rahul Gandhi’s official YouTube channel.
In this video, Rahul Gandhi’s viral statement can be heard between 1:00:38 to 1:02:37 on the timestamp. Here, Gandhi is talking about his visit to Sultanpur, where he met a man named Chet Ram Mochi, a cobbler. In this speech, he chronicles about the conversation he had with Chet Ram Mochi. Mochi told him that he had been living in Sultanpur for the past 40 years, but no one has ever respected him ever – only his (Chet Ram’s) father had given him dignity and honour.
Conclusion
Therefore, the fact check by DFRAC clearly shows that in his speech, Rahul Gandhi was talking about Chet Ram Mochi from Sultanpur and not about himself, as claimed in the viral video. Hence, the claim made by users is misleading.
Aayushi Rana 