Caste Census Speech: Did Rahul Gandhi say 50+15=73? Fact Check

Posted by: Arun Nag February 14, 2024

A video of Rahul Gandhi speaking about caste census and the reservation issue is going viral with several captions aimed at ridiculing the Congress leader for the basic calculation mistake. In the video, Rahul Gandhi is heard saying, “How many?… tell me… 50.. 15.. how many? 73…”.

The post on twitter has already received nearly 2 lakh views and it was retweeted by many.

FACT CHECK

When the digiteye India team looked at the video, it sounded supicious as Rahul Gandhi was seen speaking on the arithmatics of caste census since long and has never made such a mistake. When we searched for the original video, we could locate it from Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Chhattisgarh. He was speaking as part of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and the video was uploaded on the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of Indian National Congress here.

The following video shared on Twitter clearly shows the difference between tweaked video and the original:

Fake Video Alert 📢


The specific clip shows Rahhul Gandhi, recollecting a journalist’s query on reservations and started explaining that the caste census would not create further divide in society. Referring to the percentage of people from Other Backwards Castes (OBC), adivasis (ST) and Dalits (SC) in our society, Rahul Gandhi said these three groups constitute 50%, 8% and 15% respectively in the country’s population.

Next, he said in Hindi, “50+15+8 is 73. If 73% are not getting anything, not represented in the media, not working in the biggest 200 corporates, not in PMO, not in bureaucracy, not in private hospitals. No schools or universities are within their reach. How can Bharat be unified?”

However, the viral video on Twitter was tweaked to remove the reference to the 8% figure of Adivasis and made it look like 50+15=73.

Hence, an altered video was posted to show Rahul Gandhi in bad light, making a basic calculation wrong.

Claim: Video claims Congress leader Rahul Gandhi miscalculated 50+15 as 73 in his speech on caste census.
Conclusion: False. The video has been tweaked to delete reference to 8% Adivasis from Rahul Gandhi’s original speech.
Rating: Misrepresentation —

About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in

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