Did Rahul Gandhi give a flying kiss to Smriti Irani ?
Rahul Gandhi’s speech on Manipur has been subverted and the spotlight has been given to the “flying kiss”.
Claim
This is BIG. Rahul Gandhi gestured flying kiss towards Smriti Irani Ji while leaving parliament. An official complaint has been lodged for his unparliamentary behaviour. A habitual offender Rahul Gandhi was earlier found winking inside the parliament. And he was speaking about Women Safety Topic. What a Shame
Rating
Explanation
Rahul Gandhi was first disqualified as the Member of Parliament on 24th March 2023 following his conviction in a criminal defamation case for which he was awarded a 2-year jail sentence. Now, he has been reinstated as the Member of Parliament following the Supreme Court’s stay on the conviction and ever since he was reinstated his return to the parliament has much anticipated.
Rahul Gandhi spoke on the issue of Manipur today (9th August 2023) but soon after his speech, he left the house before which he allegedly made a “flying kiss” gesture. Several BJP MPs in the Parliament had claimed that the “flying kiss” gesture was aimed at Smriti Irani, Union Minister & an MP from the BJP. A written complaint was made to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha as well. Similar claims were made in social media which can be seen here, here and here.
Can you believe it, Rahul Gandhi blew a flying kiss towards Smriti Irani.
Just imagine the amount of outrage by Seculars-liberals-feminists if any BJP leader does it to any female opposition leader..
He will get away unquestioned even after doing such a cheap sadakchap act.. pic.twitter.com/TemYRqpCEb
— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) August 9, 2023
What’s the truth?
When we looked at the full video of the Rahul Gandhi’s speech from the video posted on YouTube by Government’s Sansad TV.
From the video, we could see that the alleged flying kiss featured in the last bit of the video at 37:10. Looking closely at the video, we were able to find out that Rahul Gandhi was not even looking at Smriti Irani, who is seen standing quite diagonally towards the Wayanad MP. While the flying kiss gesture was made, it appears that Rahul Gandhi was looking in the direction where speaker is seated.
Smriti Irani, when she addressed the Parliament, said “I object to something. The one who was given the chance to speak before me displayed indecency before leaving. It is only a misogynistic man who can give a flying kiss to a Parliament which seats female members of Parliament.” Even in her speech, Smriti Irani did not directly claim that flying kiss was directed at her.
#WATCH | Union Minister and BJP MP Smriti Irani says, “I object to something. The one who was given the chance to speak before me displayed indecency before leaving. It is only a misogynistic man who can give a flying kiss to a Parliament which seats female members of Parliament.… pic.twitter.com/xjEePHKPKN
— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2023
Interestingly, BJP MP Hema Malini, who had signed the complaint against Rahul Gandhi, had later said that she didn’t see Rahul Gandhi’s flying kiss.
It is also worth noting that Rahul Gandhi’s “spontaneous” hug to PM Modi in Narendra Modi in the Parliament was widely criticised as ‘staged’ and ‘planned’. It was also panned as unparliamentary conduct and the entire media attention was dedicated to discussing the hug rather than the contents of his speech. From the looks of it, Rahul Gandhi’s latest speech on Manipur has been ignored and only the alleged “flying kiss” to Smriti Irani is being discussed.
Conclusion
In our search, Rahul Gandhi did not do the flying kiss gesture towards Smriti Irani as claimed by various social media influencers and several BJP MPs & their supporters.
