2019 video of Kashmiri woman talking to Rahul Gandhi shared online as recent with false claim

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir polls, a video of a teary-eyed woman seemingly confronting Rahul Gandhi on an airplane has been widely shared on social media with some users claiming that she was a Kashmiri Pandit living abroad who questioned the Congress leader for opposing the PM over Kashmir's matters.

A PTI Fact Check investigation found this claim to be false. The video is from August 24, 2019, when Gandhi, along with other leaders, tried to visit Srinagar but had to turn back to Delhi after being prevented by the authorities from leaving the airport. The woman approached Gandhi in the airplane to explain the condition of Kashmiri people in the Valley following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5.

The viral video was shared by Facebook user Arun Chaudhary, who wrote, "Kashmiri Pandits living abroad surrounded Rahul Gandhi while he was travelling in an airplane and asked him why he opposes Modi on Kashmir issues? Rahul Gandhi could not give any answer to this, the national media could hardly show this news." To cross-check the veracity of the claim, the Desk conducted a customised Google search using relevant keywords.

The same video was posted on the official YouTube channel of Outlook Magazine on August 25, 2019. The description of the video mentioned that a Kashmiri woman who met Gandhi told him how her life was affected due to the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent lockdown in the Valley.

According to a Dainik Bhaskar report, Gandhi and other opposition leaders had reached Srinagar after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 but were sent back to Delhi by the administration. During this, a Kashmiri woman met him on the plane and narrated her ordeal.

On further investigation, PTI Fact Check found Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other Congress leaders had also shared the same video on social media platform X.

Hence, the investigation made it clear that the viral video was five years old and was being falsely shared as a recent incident.