Did Rahul Gandhi refuse to wear the turban?
The right-wing ecosystem rises up to claim that Rahul wore the turban only for the camera but refused to wear it off camera.
Claim
Everything is choreographed in Bharat Jodo Yatra including who should be called in to tie the turban and its colour. What is offensive though is Rahul Gandhi refusing to wear the turban when there were no cameras…Exploiting religious sentiments for politics is in Congress’s DNA.
Rating
Explanation
Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the state of Punjab on 10th January 2023 after finishing the second leg of Haryana. Now, Amit Malviya had tweeted a video claiming that Rahul Gandhi refused to wear the turban when he was off camera and wore it only when the cameras and media were around. Similar claims were made by Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, Manjinder Singh Sirsa among many other BJP functionaries and supporters. This was further amplified by the well-organized right-wing ecosystem.
“ अभी नहीं बाँधूँगा” – कैमरा और मीडिया वाले नहीं थे तो @RahulGandhi ने सिर पर दस्तार सजाने से मना कर दिया
भारत जोड़ो यात्रा में “टी-शर्ट” से लेकर “दस्तार” तक…हर हरकत एक नौटंकी और लिखी हुई स्क्रिप्ट का हिस्सा है
गांधी परिवार का सिख विरोधी चेहरा एक बार फिर बेनक़ाब@ANI @republic pic.twitter.com/9ioD3DoAJn
— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) January 11, 2023
What’s the truth?
In the video shared by Amit Malviya and others, we could see somebody being introduced to Rahul Gandhi as the best and Rahul looks at the person being introduced and asks if he’s the best in tying turban. At that moment, a woman’s voice is heard asking for a photo for which Rahul Gandhi responds “abhi nahin madam” (not now madam). Then, they continue their conversation about turbans where Rahul is told that other the person has around 3 million followers and goes to various countries for doing it. Then, Rahul is asked which color he would prefer, and Rahul responds with another question about what difference a color makes and the conversation goes on.
From this video, Rahul’s 3-second interaction with a woman where he refuses to take photo with her at that moment is blown out of proportion to claim that Rahul had denied wearing turban when cameras are off.
For @Rahulgandhi everything is for Votes and PR. अभी नहीं बाँधूँगा, अभी कैमरे नहीं है pic.twitter.com/bBs5wNJzjI
— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) January 11, 2023
Taking a cue from the videos shared by Amit Malviya, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and others which feature the logo of “State News Punjab”, we searched online and found a 3-minute video uploaded to the State News Punjab Facebook channel which is actually the viral video played in loop.
A keyword search reveals a video from a YouTube channel named ‘Manjeet Singh Ferozpuria’ which is titled “Today Manjeet Singh Ferozpuria tied a turban to Rahul Gandhi । Decorated by Manjeet Singh Ferozpuria”. It is a vlog video where Manjeet shows how he ended up tying the turban for Rahul Gandhi.
Manjeet also clarified in an interview that a woman kept asking repeatedly for photograph with Rahul Gandhi and he responded that he doesn’t want to take the photograph with her at that time and denied Manjinder Singh Sirsa’s allegation as totally wrong.
Conclusion
In our search, we find that the claims made by Amit Malviya and other BJP supporters are false. Rahul Gandhi refusing to take picture with a woman who asked to take a photo with him by saying ‘not now madam’ is used to mislead that Rahul Gandhi denied wearing the turban off camera but he wore it when he was in front of the camera.
