A video has gone viral on social media claiming that Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi deliberately violated lockdown regulations to visit their friends. The video in which Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were spotted sitting in the rear seat of a car was shared widely on social media to imply that they had defied the lockdown rules to roam around freely.
This is #RahulGandhi & #PriyankaGandhi breaking #LockDown Regulations saying they need to visit friends 🤔😇🙆 pic.twitter.com/P7pGXCEKhW
— MAHESH BHATT (@MaheshBhatt2016) April 5, 2020
Some social media users also claimed that the Gandhi-scions were violating Section 144 at a time when the entire nation is locked down due to the Chinese pandemic COVID-19.
Look whose violating Sec 144, while preaching to everyone else in the world 😊#DelhiCoronaScare #pappu pic.twitter.com/iSo1cr6ybd
— Yana Mir یانا میر (@MirYanaSY) April 4, 2020
However, in reality, the video which has been widely shared across the social media platforms to accuse Gandhis of deliberately defying lockdown rules is not a recent one.
The video is from December 24, 2019, when Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had visited Meerut to meet families of those killed in violence during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The incident was reported by mainstream most of the media and the video was also shared by the official Twitter handle of the Congress party.
Shri @RahulGandhi & AICC GS Smt. @priyankagandhi were stopped outside Meerut by the Police. They offered to travel in a group of 3 people, however, they were still stopped. They were on the way to meet families of victims of the violent anti-CAA protests in UP. #हत्यारी_भाजपा pic.twitter.com/3i2R5uoMhs
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 24, 2019
In the video shared by the Congress, a policeman can be heard asking Rahul and Priyanka to return due to restrictions which had been imposed after the riots. Congress party claimed that they had offered to travel in a group of 3 people, to comply with restrictions under section 144 of the IPC, but they were still not allowed to go.
Therefore, the viral video which has been shared widely was captured in December 2019 during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and it is not connected with the ongoing nationwide lockdown.
