At an election rally held in Telangana’s Karimnagar on May 8, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had “suddenly” stopped mentioning industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani since the announcement of the 2024 Indian Lok Sabha elections. He also alleged that Congress has received “tempo filled with money” from these businessmen.
In the video, Modi can be heard saying, “Friends, for the past five years, you must have noticed that the prince of Congress (referring to Rahul Gandhi) has been repeating one chant as soon as he wakes up. But ever since this Rafale issue was grounded, he has been chanting a new prayer. For years he kept repeating the issue — industrialists, industrialists, industrialists — and then slowly started saying Ambani-Adani, Ambani-Adani, Ambani-Adani. But since the elections were announced, he has stopped abusing Ambani-Adani."
(Prime Minister Modi’s remarks can be heard from 39:00-41:24 in this YouTube video)
Multiple social media posts also shared Modi’s video with similar claims, which can be viewed here, here, and here.
However, Prime Minister Modi's claim is false. Logically Facts watched Rahul Gandhi’s election speeches from March 17 to May 8 and found that the Congress leader mentioned Adani and Ambani in at least 25 rallies.
What did we find?
Logically Facts checked transcripts of election rallies and videos of Rahul Gandhi's speeches from March 17 to May 8, 2024. The election schedule was announced on March 16, 2024. The videos and transcripts of his speeches are publicly available on Congress’ official website and on their YouTube channel. In May alone, Rahul Gandhi referred to the two businessmen in six speeches at election rallies.
On May 6, at a rally in Jharkhand’s Singhbhum, Gandhi spoke about Adani and Ambani and said, “Adani is the name. You know, he has an eye on your water, forest, and land, and Narendra Modi works for him. Adani ji and Narendra Modi ji want this book (referring to the Constitution) to end, and we will never let his rule continue without this book.” This part can be seen in the video from 3:09 to 3:40 minutes. See an archive here.
On May 7, addressing an election rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone, Gandhi said that if the constitution of India is abolished, all the rights in the country and forests will be surrendered to “billionaires” like Adani. His remarks on Adani can be heard from 14:35 to 15:55 in this video. An archived version can be seen here.
While addressing a rally in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, on the same day, he mentioned the media coverage of Mukesh Ambani’s son’s wedding. His remarks can be heard from 3:00 to 3:20 in the video shared on Congress's YouTube channel. You can see an archive here.
In multiple other election rallies that he addressed in March and April, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of aiding Adani and Ambani.
On April 29, 2024, speaking to the public at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, Gandhi stated, “I challenge any BJP leader to say that they will not privatize public sector units, to say that we will stop the contracting system, to say that we will waive off the loans of farmers. Those people cannot say this. Because their ideology is not that of Ambedkar ji, Nehru ji or Gandhi ji. Their ideology is to help the selected people. Their ideology is to give all the wealth, land, forests and water of India to people like Adani and Ambani.” The remarks can be heard from 6:33 to 7:22 in this video and the archived version can be seen here.
Several other instances of his speech made in the states of Gujarat (seen at 2:18-3:44 in this video), Karnataka (4:00- 4:40), Maharashtra (22:40-24:37), Uttar Pradesh (1:16- 4:02), Bihar (2:03-3:05), Odisha (5:17-6:20), and union territory Daman & Diu (8:57-9:56) included similar accusations against Adani and Ambani. Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP of “giving all the government contracts of roads, wind power, electricity, weapon manufacturing and everything to those 20 to 25 people including Adani and Ambani while extorting the poor, Adivasi, and backward classes of the society.” Archives of these speeches can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The above evidence establishes that Rahul Gandhi has not ‘stopped speaking’ about the two businessmen, as claimed by Modi.
The verdict
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has constantly spoken about Adani and Ambani in most of his election rallies, which were held after the announcement of the elections. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts and republished by The News Minute as part of the Shakti Collective. You can find the original article here.