Social media posts falsely claim Indian opposition leader says party will 'redistribute Hindu money'

Remarks by the head of India's opposition Congress party Mallikarjun Kharge have been taken out of context on social media to falsely claim he said his party would take money from Hindus so it could be "distributed to Muslims". He was in fact responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's criticism of a proposal by the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to conduct a study on wealth inequality in India.

One of the false posts was published on September 2, 2024 and included a 27-second clip of Kharge giving a speech.

"Do you know what the Congress is doing? These Congress people will enter your homes, break your banks and then will distribute your money to people outside, to the Muslims," he said in the clip.

It was posted along with a caption that read: "Money will be distributed to Muslims from the wallets of Hindus!"

"The national president of Congress has said it clearly! Congress has only one motive: to break the banks of Hindus and distribute money among Muslims," the caption went on to say.

The video has been viewed more than 1,400 times after it was shared by a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, who has more than 5,600 followers on Facebook.

It was also shared with similar claims on X here and here.

The false claim surfaced after Gandhi said in a speech that as part of the Congress party's manifesto, it would survey how wealth was distributed in Indian society across different groups if elected to power.

Indian media reported Modi said in response the plan would mean "snatching" wealth from Hindus and distributing it to Muslims, but Gandhi said it only meant a study into "how much injustice is happening" (archived link).

The false posts also surfaced ahead of legislative elections in Jammu and Kashmir and in Haryana, expected in September and October respectively.

However, original footage of Kharge's speech shows the false posts have taken his remarks out of context.

Modi's accusation

A reverse image search of a keyframe from the clipped video revealed a longer version published on the Congress party's verified YouTube channel on May 3, 2024 during the Indian general election (archived link).

"Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge addresses the public in Ahmedabad, Gujarat," the video's caption read.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false posts (left) and the video uploaded on Congress' YouTube channel (right):

About 31:50 into the YouTube video, Kharge said in Hindi: "We are going to conduct a cast census to see how many educated people there are in different places, in different communities, how many graduates there are, how much income there is, how much per capita income there is, we are going to conduct a caste census." (archived link)

He went on to say "then Modi immediately said" before making the remarks in the false post.

"We (Congress) are not going to distribute, we are not giving anyone (anything) by taking something. Please forgive me but the kind of thoughts that Modi is spreading are wrong. It is wrong for society, it is wrong for the country and it is wrong for all of us," he continued.

AFP has debunked several false claims made about politicians during India's April to June 2024 general election, including here, here and here.