Did Rahul Gandhi offer a biscuit eaten by a dog to his party worker? Know the truth. 

Rahul Gandhi is continuing his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. The journey started from Manipur on 14 January and will end in Mumbai on 20 March. A video of this yatra is now going viral on social media. It can be seen in the video that Rahul Gandhi is feeding biscuits to a dog. He then offered the same biscuit to a nearby person.

Social media users are claiming that Rahul Gandhi is offering the dog’s half eaten biscuit to his party member.

However, Fact Crescendo found the claim to be misleading. When Rahul Gandhi gave a biscuit to a dog, the dog got scared and did not eat the biscuit. Seeing this, Rahul Gandhi gave biscuits to the dog's owner.

What’s the claim?

Sharing this video, a social media user wrote, “This proves that Congress only keeps dogs as pets. Rashul Gandhi gave a biscuit to a dog. The dog refused to eat it. He then gave the same biscuit to his party member and he ate that biscuit.”

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Fact Check-

A relevant keyword search on Google led us to a report published about this incident on The Hindu website on 6 February.

According to the report, Rahul Gandhi had said that the person to whom he offered the biscuit is the dog’s owner. When Rahul Gandhi gave the biscuit to the dog it was terrified. So he gave the biscuit to its owner who was standing nearby. After this, the owner fed the dog.

You can read about the same incident in The Times of India report as well.

We also got a tweet from ANI which posted a video of Rahul Gandhi's press conference. In the video, Rahul Gandhi said, “I called the dog and its owner. The dog was scared. When I tried to feed, it refused to eat. So I gave the biscuit to the owner and the dog ate from his hand. I don't understand where the problem is."

#WATCH | On the viral video of him feeding a dog during the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says, "...I called the dog and the owner. The dog was nervous, shivering and when I tried to feed it, the dog got scared. So I gave biscuits to the dog's owner and… pic.twitter.com/QhO6QvfyNB

— ANI (@ANI) February 6, 2024

INDI Alliance also tweeted a video in which the owner of the dog is saying that the dog was photographed with Rahul Gandhi and got a packet of biscuit as we…

Rahul Gandhi’s reply on viral video of Dog & biscuits:

The owner came with his pet, the dog was scared and didn’t eat biscuit by my hand so I gave the Biscuit to the owner to feed the dog and the dog ate.

What’s the problem in that, why BJP people hate dogs, he’s asked. https://t.co/DSjjuD2DPI pic.twitter.com/gVDZvwGZ13

— INDIA Alliance (@IndiaAlliances) February 6, 2024

After this we found a video on Times Now's YouTube channel. In this video we saw that Rahul Gandhi first tried to give biscuits to the dog, but the dog did not eat the biscuits. Seeing this, Rahul Gandhi gave biscuits to the dog's owner and started talking to him. The dog ate the biscuits that were in the hands of its owner. Between 30 seconds and 40 seconds of the video you can see the dog eating from its owner's hand.

Fact Crescendo contacted Rahul Gandhi's office. They told us, “Rahul Gandhi called the dog not because of politics, but out of curiosity. The dog did not eat the biscuits given to him because he was afraid of the crowd. Seeing this Rahul Gandhi gave the biscuits to the owner. The owner of the dog is not a Congress worker. He came there to see the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and the people who participated in it. This incident is only being used for bad publicity.”

Conclusion:

Fact Crescendo found the claim to be misleading. When Rahul Gandhi gave a biscuit to a dog, the dog got scared and did not eat the biscuit. Seeing this, Rahul Gandhi gave biscuits to the dog's owner to feed it. He did not offer the biscuits to his party worker.