Rahul's audience remains seated through national anthem? There's more than meets the eye

A video from the event where Rahul Gandhi was addressing the Indian diaspora in San Francisco, US at the event "Mohabbat ki Dukan" has now gone viral, triggering a political slugfest similar to his lecture at Cambridge earlier this year. The video of the event that is being shared on Twitter claims that the audience during Gandhi's event did not stand up while the National Anthem was being sung.

A choir of students in the video from the event could be seen singing the National Anthem. While a few people stood up, others remained seated. Sharing the video of the event on Twitter, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonnawalla said, "Shocking, shameful. Received this video from media person with respect to Rahul Gandhi’s programme. During National anthem half of the people Rahul addressed later did not even bother to stand up. Later they paused the national anthem in the middle and said it was just ‘Mic Check’. The onus is on Rahul Gandhi’s organising team to clarify if and why this disrespect was done? Who are the audiences who disrespect the National Anthem! No Indian would.. is Anthem used for Rahul’s mic check? Clarity would be appreciated."

People Rahul Gandhi addressed in America didn’t even stand for National Anthem.
Who are these folks? pic.twitter.com/gNKlIlbsKd

— Harsh Chaturvedi BJP (@harshcha)

What's the truth?

However, in what turns out ot be there's more to it. With just a mere keyword search on Twitter, an extended version of the video is present, in which the anthem stopped mid-way and the woman informed the audience that it was just a mic check. 

She could be heard saying, “I see so many patriots here. I really appreciate it. Please sit down. This is only a mic check. Sorry about that." She reiterated to the people who were still standing that it was a mic check.

In the video, it can be observed that hearing the National Anthem being sung, a few people immediately stood up. Some followed suit, while others did not. Some people also took their seats again after the moderator signalled them to remain seated. 

 A complete video of the entire event is also present, where towards the end, the children finally sang the National Anthem. When this happened, Rahul Gandhi and Sam Pitroda were also seen standing among the children and singing along with them. The crowd around the stage could be seen standing. The camera angle, however, did not allow for the whole audience to be captured.

Rahul Gandhi launches scathing attack at BJP-led Central government

While addressing the Indian diaspora in the US, Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the ruling BJP-led Central government and said it is "threatening" the people and "misusing" the country’s agencies.

Speaking in Santa Clara, California, Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, saying that the BJP and the RSS are in charge of all the political apparatus in India. " India is being run by a group of people who are 'absolutely convinced' they know everything. "They could sit down with God and explain things and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one such specimen," he said. I think if you sat Modi Ji down next to God, he would start explaining to God how the universe works. And God would get confused about what I have created," he said.

"There's a group of people who understand everything. They can explain science to scientists, history to historians, warfare to the Army, and at the heart of it is mediocrity, they actually don't understand anything," he added.

Before embarking on his "Bharat Jodo Yatra," he claimed that he had come to the realisation that the conventional political tools of the past were no longer effective. "The BJP intimidates citizens and abuses government institutions. The Bharat Jodo Yatra was initiated because the BJP-RSS controlled all the tools necessary for us to communicate with the public, he claimed.