Did Sonia Gandhi say that Indira Gandhi’s victory in Karnataka raped the politics of the nation? Know the truth.

An old video clip of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi is going viral on social media prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. In the video, Sonia Gandhi was mentioning the victory of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the election and how that affected the politics of the nation. 

Sharing the video, a user wrote, “Indira ki jeet ne desh ki rajniti ko balatkar rakh diya (The victory of Indira had raped the politics of the nation)”

However, Fact Crescendo found the claim to be misleading. Sonia Gandhi did not say that Indira Gandhi’s win in the election raped the politics of the nation. She said PALATKAR (Overturned) and not Balatkar (Rape). 

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The same video was also viral a few years ago. Below you can see it. 

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Fact Check- 

We noticed that in the viral video, ‘Indian National Congress. 84th Plenary Session 2018’ written in the background. Taking a clue from this we ran a keyword search on YouTube. We found Sonia Gandhi’s speech on the same occasion on Indian National Congress’ YouTube Channel on 17 March 2018. That time Sonia Gandhi was the chairperson of the UPA.

At 3.40 minute timestamp, Sonia Gandhi can be heard saying, “40 years ago in Chikmagalur after Indira ji’s glorious victory overturned the politics of the nation and Congress again regained its strength and became a powerful party. I believe that in the next few months in the Karnataka elections, our party will again perform well and the politics of the country will get a new direction.”

After hearing the above video, we found that Sonia Gandhi had said that India Gandhi’s victory overturned (Palatkar) India’s politics and not raped (Balatkar) the politics of the country. 

Below you can see the comparison between the viral and real video.

According to The Indian Express report, Sonia Gandhi praised the Congress party’s strength, comparing Indira Gandhi’s return in 1978 to Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. She urged everyone to work together under Rahul’s presidency to fight corruption and vendetta in India. She had urged Congress workers to lead a movement against the fear instilled by those in authority. Criticizing Modi’s slogans as mere theatrics to seize power, she had accused the BJP of failing to fulfill its promises. Asserting that the Congress is combating the authoritarian Modi government, she had highlighted growing public disillusionment with the BJP’s unfulfilled pledges since 2014.

Conclusion: 

Fact Crescendo found the claim to be misleading. Sonia Gandhi did not say that Indira Gandhi’s win in the election raped the politics of the nation. She said PALATKAR (Overturned) and not Balatkar (Rape).