Fact Check: Rahul Gandhi calls ‘Bharat Mata’ an unparliamentary word? Let’s find the truth

Claim: The video shows Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calling the ‘Bharat Mata’ slogan unparliamentary.

Fact: The claim is false. The video shows Rahul Gandhi taking a jibe at the government after parts of his speech in the Parliament were expunged.

Hyderabad: A video of Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi walking down the stairs of the old Parliament building and speaking to the media before getting into a car has been circulating on social media.

The Hindi text overlayed on the video loosely translates to, “This is the truth of Congress: Bharat Mata is an unparliamentary word for them now.” When a journalist asks Rahul Gandhi about parts of the Congress leader’s speech expunged during a House debate, Rahul responds, “Apparently, Bharat Mata is an unparliamentary word in India nowadays.”

An X user shared the video claiming that Rahul Gandhi is saying that ‘Bharat Mata is an unconstitutional term’. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video showed Rahul Gandhi reacting to the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s decision to remove the word ‘murder’ from the phrase ‘murder of Bharat Mata’ in his speech. He did not describe the slogan ‘Bharat Mata’ as unconstitutional.

We ran a keyword search and found the same video published in August 2023 by several media outlets, including the Times of India, The Print and News Tak. The media outlets reported that the statement was made outside the Parliament after the phrase ‘Bharat Mata’s Murderers’ was expunged from Rahul Gandhi’s speech.

We also came across a report from India Today from August 10, 2023, titled “‘Bharat Mata’ apparently unparliamentary now: Rahul Gandhi on his deleted remarks.”

According to the report, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi questioned the Lok Sabha secretariat’s decision to expunge some parts of his speech made during the debate on the no-confidence motion. The reaction of the Congress leader came after some of his words, such as ‘murder’ were expunged from the phrase ‘murder of Bharat Mata’ by the Lok Sabha secretariat.

The report also mentioned that several Lok Sabha members wrote to speaker Om Birla, expressing concern over the decision to expunge the word ‘murder’ from the phrase ‘murder of Bharat Mata.’ They argued that the decision was inexplicable and clarified that the term had been used in a metaphorical context.

The context behind the clip can be traced to the 2023 Monsoon Session.

While speaking on behalf of the Congress in the no-confidence motion brought by the opposition, Rahul Gandhi strongly criticised the Union government over the Manipur violence. Attacking prime minister Narendra Modi's alleged inaction, Rahul Gandhi said, “The PM cannot visit Manipur because he has killed the idea of India. He has murdered Bharat Mata. You are a traitor. You are not a patriot.”

The Lok Sabha Secretariat expunged certain words from Rahul Gandhi’s speech, including ‘murder,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘killer,’ and ‘traitors.’ The viral clip, recorded outside Parliament, shows Rahul Gandhi responding to the removal of these words from his speech. His remarks, ‘apparently Bharat Mata is an unparliamentary word in India nowadays,’ in the video were a pointed jibe at the decision.

Responding to the criticism of Congress and Rahul Gandhi, then Parliamentary Affairs minister Pralhad Joshi clarified that only some unparliamentary words and not ‘Bharat Mata’ were expunged from Gandhi’s address during the no-confidence motion.

Therefore, we conclude that the viral video shows Rahul Gandhi taking a jibe at the ruling dispensation and Lok Sabha for expunging words from his speech, and not about terming ‘Bharat Mata’ an unparliamentary word.

(This article was first posted by NewsMeter and re-shared by Deccan Chronicle as part of the Shakti Collective Fact Check initiative.)