Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Aug 27: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday stepped up its attack on Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, citing a newly launched website that claims to have fact-checked statements made during his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign.
The website, titled ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’, claims to have examined 40 statements made by Gandhi during four student outreach events and rated 29 as “false” and 11 as “misleading”. It says its assessment is based on 134 sources, including government data and official records.
The four events examined by the website were held in Kota on June 17, Dehradun on July 17, Prayagraj on August 8 and Pune on August 22. According to the portal, it has examined claims relating to government jobs, unemployment, education, examination systems, recruitment, coaching expenditure, crimes against women and the gig economy.
The BJP used the website's findings to accuse Gandhi of misleading young people, with several party leaders describing the portal as a counter to his student-focused campaign.
BJP MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi called Gandhi the “flag-bearer of lies” and alleged that his statements were driven by “frustration and envy” towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“No matter how much Rahul Gandhi, the flag-bearer of lies fueled by frustration and envy towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, continues to spread falsehoods, every lie is now being exposed through facts,” Trivedi said in a post on X, referring to the website as a platform that was exposing Gandhi's claims one by one.
BJP national media head and chief spokesperson Anil Baluni said Gandhi's claims would now be countered with facts.
“Let Rahul Gandhi keep on lying, no problem... now every lie will be answered with facts,” Baluni said, adding that the louder the “propaganda” echoed, the louder the truth would emerge in response.
BJP national media co-in-charge and spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari claimed that the website had been launched by young people in response to what he called Gandhi's “fake narrative”.
Addressing a press conference later, Bhandari alleged that young people across the country were “troubled, irritated and angry” over Gandhi's statements.
He said the website had examined 40 claims made by Gandhi during his four programmes and alleged that all 40 had either been found to be false or misleading.
“This makes it clear that the real youth of the country, the youth who is on the ground, who is India's youth, not the Congress PR stunt one, the real youth of India is talking about ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’,” Bhandari claimed.
BJP national spokesperson Prem Shukla also promoted the website, saying it was exposing Gandhi's claims “one by one” with facts.
Another party spokesperson, Pratyush Kanth, said the portal was examining Gandhi's statements against documented facts and sources.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer and BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani described ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’ as the “nemesis” of Gandhi's ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’.
“Rahul Gandhi's ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ finally has met its nemesis... From a GenZ,” Jethmalani said in a social media post.
The website itself describes its project as “Four rallies, 40 claims, one answer key” and says it has classified 73 per cent of the claims as false and 27 per cent as misleading.
Among the claims it examines are statements concerning employment, student admissions, coaching expenditure, government vacancies, paper leaks and crimes against women. The portal says some claims are contradicted by official databases, court records or government statistics, while others have been classified as misleading because, according to its assessment, they lack context or rely on figures that cannot be applied universally.
The website also claims to have been created as an independent initiative involving young internet users and digital creators. However, reports have noted that the identities of those behind the portal have not been publicly established, and its claimed Gen Z connection remains unverified. The BJP has also denied having any direct association with the website.
The launch of ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’ comes amid an increasingly sharp political contest over the youth vote and digital narratives surrounding Gandhi's ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign.
The campaign has so far covered four cities and focused on issues concerning students, employment, education and young people. Gandhi and the Congress have not publicly responded to the allegations made by the website, according to reports.