India
oi-Madhuri Adnal
A Gen Z creator has launched ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’, a website that fact-checks claims made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign, with the platform saying 29 of 40 statements it examined were false and 11 were misleading.
The website has reviewed statements made by Gandhi at four events in Dehradun, Kota, Prayagraj and Pune between June 17 and August 22. It provides sources and fact-check links for each claim and uses an interactive map to show where the statements were made.
‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’, launched to fact-check Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign, reports 29 of 40 statements from events in Dehradun, Kota, Prayagraj, and Pune as false or misleading. Supported by BJP leaders, the site examines claims on jobs, crime, and education using cited sources.
The platform says it examined the 40 claims using 134 sources, covering issues including government jobs, unemployment, education, NEET-related expenditure and crimes against women.
One of the claims examined was Gandhi’s statement in Prayagraj that only one in 150 aspirants gets a government job. The website has classified the claim as misleading and cited government data in its assessment.
In Pune, the website challenged Gandhi’s claim that six out of every 100 women in India are raped, marking it false and arguing that it does not correspond with official crime records.
It has also marked as false Gandhi’s claim that 99 per cent of sexual violence, rape and molestation cases go unreported. The website argues that the figure comes from an older media analysis and does not represent an established official statistic.
BJP Leaders Back Jhooth Ki Goonj
The website has received support from several BJP leaders, who have shared it on social media and described it as a response to Gandhi’s claims.
BJP leader Amit Malviya called it a ‘brilliant website’, saying it was countering Gandhi’s alleged misinformation claim by claim with facts.
BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi described Gandhi as a ‘flag-bearer of lies’ and said the website was exposing his claims through facts.
Party national media head and chief spokesperson Anil Baluni said Gandhi’s claims would now be answered with facts.
BJP national media co-in-charge Pradeep Bhandari claimed the website was launched by young people in response to Gandhi’s “fake narrative”. He said the youth had responded to Gandhi’s four programmes by examining his claims.
BJP spokesperson Prem Shukla also promoted the website, while spokesperson Pratyush Kanth said it was examining Gandhi’s statements using documented facts and sources.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani described ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’ as a “nemesis” to Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign.
What Is Chhatron Ki Goonj?
The Congress describes ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ as a nationwide youth outreach campaign aimed at giving students a platform to raise concerns over education, safety and other issues.
Gandhi has held four events under the campaign in Dehradun, Kota, Prayagraj and Pune, where he spoke about employment, education, examinations and crimes against women.
The ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’ website has now positioned itself as a platform tracking and fact-checking statements made during those events.
The website’s assessments have not been independently verified. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor the Congress has so far responded to the allegations made by the platform.
