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A video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaking at a public event is being shared on social media platforms.
Gandhi can be heard saying, "Our youth that is roaming around the streets, using Instagram and Facebook, their bank accounts will be credited with, yearly with one lakh rupees and 8,500 rupees a month."
Who shared it?: The post was shared by X (formerly Twitter) users Megh Updates and Rishi Bagree and Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Head of Social Media, Richa Rajpoot.
This post recorded 1.1 million views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
What is the truth?: Rahul Gandhi's video has been clipped.
In the longer version of his speech, Gandhi was speaking about the 'Right to Apprenticeship' scheme of the Congress which is mentioned in its 2024 Lok Sabha election manifesto.
The program will offer a one-year apprenticeship with a private or public sector company to every individual holding a diploma or college degree and under the age of 25. During this period, participants will receive an annual stipend of one lakh rupees.
How did we find out?: At first, we looked for the longer version of the video. We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
We came across a livestream of Rahul Gandhi's public meeting in Bhagalpur in Bihar on 20 April.
Team WebQoof, then, identified portions in the viral video:
At 9:30 minutes, Gandhi said, "Narendra Modi has made India the centre of unemployment. You can ask any youth what they do and they say that they do not do anything. They use Instagram and Facebook six-seven hours a day. Why? Because Modiji has spread unemployment in the entire country."
He then adds that those who used to provide employment have been destroyed by Narendra Modiji's demonetisation and wrong GST (Goods and Services Tax). Due to this, employment cannot be created in India, said Gandhi.
He points out that the sons of rich families enter the job market by the method where they get a one-year apprenticeship, get a temporary job, get trained and paid.
At 10:39 minutes, he said that such a facility is not available to the unemployed youth of India. Apprenticeship can be done only by rich people.
At 10:56 minutes, Rahul Gandhi said, "The sons of rich people can do it but our youth, the unemployed youth, cannot do it, so our second scheme, which we have called Pehli Naukri Pakki (Right to Apprenticeship)."
He then explained the scheme, in which all graduate or diploma holders of India will have the right to apprenticeship.
At 11:37 minutes, the Congress leader said, "Our next government is going to give the right to the first job to the youth, just as we gave the right to employment under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), similarly we will give the right to the first job to graduates."
11:59 minutes onwards, Gandhi said that for one year, all graduates and diploma holders will get an apprenticeship. They will get one lakh rupees for a year (8,500 rupees a month), which will be credited to their bank accounts.
At 12:20 minutes, he said, "They will be trained and if they do good work in the first year, they will get a permanent job. These will be apprenticeship jobs, these will be in private sector and public sector units, they will be in government agencies. Youth will get training. The country will get a trained work force."
At 12:41 minutes, he said, "Our youth, who are roaming around the streets, using Instagram and Facebook, will get one lakh rupees a year (8,500 rupees a month), our government will do this."
It is mentioned in Congress' 2024 election manifesto as well.
Conclusion: Clearly, a clipped video of Rahul Gandhi's recent speech in Bihar is being shared with false claims.
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