The leader of India’s main opposition party, Rahul Gandhi, brandished a copy of the Indian constitution at an election rally – not the Chinese constitution, as members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) falsely suggested. They shared a photo taken at a rally during India’s national elections, but a clearer photo from the event shows Gandhi holding an edition of EBC’s “The Constitution of India.”
Himanta Biswa Sarma, a BJP politician who is chief minister of the northeastern Indian state of Assam, posted the photo on X, formerly Twitter, on May 17, 2024 (archived link).
“The original copy of the Constitution of India has a blue cover. The original Chinese constitution has a red cover,” he wrote.
“Does Rahul have a Chinese Constitution? We need to check.”
Included in the post is an image that appears to show Gandhi giving a speech while holding a red-covered book.
The post also includes photos of the red cover of the Chinese constitution and the original copy of the Indian constitution – which is blue and gold and kept in a special helium-filled box in the library of India’s parliament (archived link).
Several BJP members shared the demand and images elsewhere on X here It is herein the final weeks of India’s six-week national elections.
Gandhi has regularly brandished the Indian Constitution at election rallies, warning that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP wants to drastically alter the text to support its Hindu nationalist politics.
Home Minister Amit Shah, however, counted On Indian broadcaster NDTV, the BJP government did not plan to change the constitution (archived link).
Indian Constitution
A reverse image search of Gandhi’s photo found it in a Instagram post in Revanth Reddychief minister of the southern state of Telangana, which was shared on May 5 (archived link).
The post includes several photos of an election rally Gandhi attended in the state.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shown in the fake post (left) and Reddy’s Instagram post (right):
Reddy wrote in Telugu: “The constitution has given us self-respect and rights to the people of the country. We will protect the constitution at all costs. ~ Rahul Gandhi.”
One of the other photos in the Instagram post shows Gandhi holding a red book with the title “The Constitution of India.”
The letters ‘EBC’ can also be seen in the bottom right corner of the book cover.
Below is a screenshot of Reddy’s Instagram post, with the book zoomed in by AFP:
A keyword search on Google found that this edition of the constitution was Published by legal publisher EBC (archived link).
A company spokesperson confirmed that Gandhi was holding a pocket edition of the Indian constitution compiled by senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan.
The title is widely available online (archived link).
Local media reported that Gandhi had displayed a pocket copy of the Indian constitution at the rally in Telangana (archived link).
Gandhi too posted a YouTube video of himself holding the book and asking voters to “save” the constitution (archived link).
