No, ISRO Chief S Somanath Did Not Visit RSS Office After Chandrayaan-3 Landing
The video shows S Somanath at an NGO in Bengaluru and it was taken a month before Chandrayaan-3 landed on the moon.
A video of ISRO chairman S Somanath is being shared to falsely claim that he visited RSS' Bengaluru office after Chandrayaan-3's landing.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
A video of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath being felicitated by a group of people is being shared on social media, after the organisation achieved the historic feat of landing the Chandrayaan-3 near the south pole of the moon.
What are users claiming?: The short video is being shared to claim that Somanath was felicitated by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh's (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at the Sangh's office in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
The claim was also shared by PC Mohan, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Bengaluru.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
Several X Premium subscribers shared the same claim.
(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.)
Is it true?: While the ISRO chief was indeed honoured by Hosabale, the event was held at Rashtrotthana Parishat, a non-profit in Chamarajapete, Bengaluru and not the RSS' office.
How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for more details regarding the viral video.
This led us to an X post by one Rajesh Padmar dated 19 July, whose bio identified him as the Sangh's head of publicity, which carried the viral video.
In his post, Padmar said that Somanath was "congratulated" for successfully leading Chandrayaan-3 at Rashtrotthana Parishat in Chamarajapete, Bengaluru.
We looked up 'Rashtrotthana Parishat' and found that it is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Bengaluru, founded in 1965. It works towards public awareness, education and public service.
On it's website, we came across a blog post about the felicitation of S Somanath.
It mentioned that the ISRO chief was presented a shawl by RSS' Dattatreya Hosabale, in the presence of Rashtrotthana Parishat's President MP Kumar and General Secretary N Dinesh Hegde, to recognise his "leadership of the Chandrayaan-3 mission."
The NGO's website carried photos of Somanath's felicitation.
The RSS' media wing, Vishwa Samvad Kendra (VSK) also shared this video on their verified Facebook page, which also mentioned the location as Rashtrotthana Parishad and not the RSS' Bengaluru office.
Their Karnataka wing shared a clarification regarding the video on X, stating that the news about S Somanath visiting the RSS' Bengaluru office was "not a fact."
It mentioned that the video was an old one and was taken when Somanath met students heading a project named TAPAS.
"TAPAS is an initiative where BPL (below poverty line) students from underprivileged rural areas will be given free residential coaching for IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) entrance tests," it said.
The VSK's Karnataka wing issued a clarification regarding the viral video.
Conclusion: An old video of ISRO Chief S Somanath being felicitated by RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosable at an NGO is being shared with a false claim that Somanath visited the RSS' office after Chandrayaan-3's landing.
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