Fact Check: No, ISRO chief Somanath was not felicitated at Bengaluru RSS office
The ISRO chief was honoured by the RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at an event at Rashtrotthana Parishat, a non-profit in Chamarajapete in Bengaluru, which is not at RSS’ Bengaluru office.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 2 Sep 2023 11:47 AM GMT
Screengrab of the X post.
Hyderabad: A video showing Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) chief S Somanath being felicitated is viral on social media. Users claim that he was facilitated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the south pole of the moon.
An X (formerly Twitter) blue handle, News Arena India, shared the video on August 25 with the caption, “ISRO Chairman S Somanath at RSS office in Bengaluru.”
Multiple X premium and Facebook users shared the video claiming the same. Click here, here and here to see the posts.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the ISRO chief was honoured by the RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at an event at Rashtrotthana Parishat, a non-profit in Chamarajapete in Bengaluru, which is not at RSS’ Bengaluru office.
We ran a relevant keyword search and came across a post on X by Rajesh Padmar, which carried the viral video. Padmar in his X bio identified himself as RSS head of publicity (Pranth Prachar Pramukh).
The caption of the post read, “RSS Sarakaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale congratulated Dr S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO on successfully leading of #Chandrayan3, at Rashtrotthana Parishat, Chamarajapete, Bengaluru.” This post was published on July 19, before the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing on August 23.
We also found that Rashtrotthana Parishat is a public charitable non-governmental organisation (NGO) founded in Bengaluru in 1965. We also came across an article on the website titled ‘Rashtrotthana Parishat Felicitates ISRO Chief, Dr. Somnath.’
The write-up on the page said that the ISRO chief was presented with a shawl by RSS’ Dattatreya Hosabale. He was honoured in the presence of Rashtrotthana Parishat’s President MP Kumar and General Secretary N Dinesh Hegde, who recognised his “leadership of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.”
Hence, we conclude that the claim of the ISRO chief being facilitated at the RSS office in Bengaluru after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 is false.
