Did Rahul Gandhi insult Pujaris as claimed in these tweets? Fact check

BJP’s IT Cell head Amit Malviya has shared a clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi portraying that he claimed that India is a country of ascetics (tapasvis) and not priests. It was claimed to portray that Rahul Gandhi insulted priests in his press conference.

अब इनको पुजारियों से भी तकलीफ़ है… pic.twitter.com/zcWnNrVx1Y

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 8, 2023

The context was Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra that was going through Haryana, where the clip showed him saying that India is not a country of priests anymore. Shared by BJP national IT head Amit Malviya, the video has gone viral with many BJP functionaries sharing it on social media. The caption reads: “Now they have a problem with the priests too…” (“अब इनको पुजारियों से भी तकलीफ़ है…”)

It was shared here and here. Soon the video also accompanied several video clips showing Rahul Gandhi having alcohol and chicken in Haryana

FACT CHECK

When our team checked the full press conference video on Indian National Congress Party’s official portal, we found that the said video clip has been altered and taken out of context with false claims instead to portray Rahul gandhi in bad light. See the original video here at the 27:00 minutes:

In this video Rahul Gandhi clearly uses words like “tapasya” and “poojari” but in a different context. He said the hard workers of the country and the people of the Congress party are “tapasvis” and their skill is worth to worship. He blamed the BJP as a party of those poojaris, who get people to forcibly worship them. In this context, he made a differentiation stating that “India is a country of tapasvis, not poojaris.”

He further said: “The BJP is an organisation of worship. If you use it in worship, then it gets power. There are two ways of worship. One is generally when the devotee goes to God and asks for something. But the initiative belongs to the devotee. The way of worship for RSS is different. They want people to worship them forcefully. Modi ji wants to be worshiped forcefully and insists everyone in the country should worship him. The answer for this can only be penance. That’s why this yatra is successful and not only Congress, but lakhs of people are doing penance in it.”

When rahul Gandhi was asked whether he is an ascetic now, he replied:”This is a country of ascetics. Some people have said, ‘Look how much Rahul Gandhi has walked.’ Why don’t people talk about how much the farmers have marched? There is not a single farmer in India who has walked less than I have. You won’t find one labourer in India who has walked less than I. Why don’t we say, ‘Look how much the labourer has walked?’ Because we don’t respect austerity (tapasya). But I do. So, this is what we have to change. This country is of tapasivs, not poojaris. That is the reality. And if we want to become a superpower, we have to respect tapasvis”

Clearly, what Rahul Gandhi said was taken out of context and the video was clipped to show that Rahul Gandhi has spoken against priests in general. Hence, the claim was totally false.

Claim: Rahul Gandhi insulted priests (poojaris) in his press conference.
Conclusion: No, Rahul Gandhi never insulted priests.
Rating: Totally False —