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  • 2022-01-31 (xsd:date)
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  • Footage shows former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi's guards firing at assailant who survived (en)
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  • Social media posts circulating in India purport to show footage of guards for former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi shooting an innocent beggar dead. The posts accuse his party of hypocrisy after it said Prime Minister Narendra Modi overreacted to protesters who blocked his vehicle in January 2022. The claim is false; the video shows security personnel firing at a man who tried to attack Gandhi in 1986. The assailant was captured alive. Rajiv Gandhi was then India's prime minister. He went to Rajghat memorial to pay his respects, reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on January 9. There was some movement in the bush and his security guards felt threatened. They immediately started firing and killed the person behind the bush. It later turned out that the person was a beggar who used to sleep in Rajghat. Rajiv Gandhi served as prime minister and was a stalwart of the now-opposition party Indian National Congress until his death in 1991 . Rajghat is a memorial in Delhi dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi who is regarded as the 'father of the nation'. The video, which has more than 25,000 views, shows security guards scrambling and firing their weapons. A screenshot of a Facebook post sharing the false claim, taken on January 27, 2022 The post adds: Today, Congress leaders are asking if there was real threat to Modi's life in Punjab. If not, why did the Congress PM order to kill a person who did not pose any threats? Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vehicle was blocked by protesters during a visit to Punjab on January 5 in what the Ministry of Home Affairs dubbed a security breach. Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi -- a member of Congress party -- accused Modi of pulling a life threat gimmick. The Facebook post appears to accuse the Indian National Congress of being double-faced when it accused Modi of overreacting to protesters blocking his vehicle while failing to condone Gandhi's guards for purportedly killing an innocent beggar. The video was shared in similar Facebook posts here and here . However, the claim is false; the footage does not show Gandhi's guards killing an innocent beggar. 'Assailant shot at Gandhi' A reverse image search on Google found the original video posted on YouTube by AP news agency. According to the video's caption, Gandhi's guards shot a man hiding in a gazebo who was captured. (2 Oct 1986) Indian PM, Rajiv Gandhi, while attending anniversary celebration for the late Mahatma Gandhi, was shot at by a Sikh hiding in a gazebo. The man was captured and Gandhi unharmed, it reads. Below are screenshot comparisons between the video in misleading posts (left) and AP's video (right). Screenshot comparisons between the video in misleading posts (left) and AP's video (right) ( Uzair RIZVI) A press release from the Indian government on October 2, 1986 says the assailant fired shots at Gandhi. The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times also reported that the assailant fired a gun. Captured alive Furthermore, the man was captured alive and not killed by Gandhi's guards. In a 2009 interview with news site Sify, the assailant Karamjit Singh said that he shot at Rajiv Gandhi to avenge the anti-Sikh riots in India following Rajiv Gandhi's mother and former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh body guards in October, 1984. Singh was reportedly released from prison in 2000 and contested parliamentary elections as an independent candidate in Punjab in 2009, which he lost. (en)
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