CLAIM

TRUTH

VERIFICATION AND METHODOLOGY

VERDICT

An image is being circulated across social media platforms and instant messaging app WhatsApp with a claim that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS ) is a terrorist organisation. The photo shows a mob of saffron-clothed men wielding swords and attacking an unarmed man.The image is being shared with a caption that reads, “The RSS are terrorists. Now they control govt of India (sic)”.A Times Fact Check reader sent the same image to us on our WhatsApp number. She wanted to know if the claim made with it was true.A verified Twitter handle by the name of Khaled Beydoun posted the same image with a similar claim. His tweet now stands deleted.The image is a screengrab taken from Parzania, a film released in 2005 about the 2002 Gujarat riots.Using reverse-image search on Google search engine, we found a link to a photo-story published by The Indian Express on June 29, 2016. Titled 'Before Shorgul, nine Bollywood films that portrayed Hindu-Muslim tension', it had screengrabs from several films that depicted Hindu-Muslim tension in India.The ninth picture in the photo-story is the same as one that is being shared widely now.The caption given to the image reads, “Parzania (2007): One of the most hard-hitting films, based on the 2002 Gujarat riots, featured Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in the lead roles. The film is inspired by the true story of a 10-year-old Parsi boy, who disappeared after the 28 February 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre, during the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002. The film traces the journey of a family while trying to locate their missing son.”We looked up the exhaustive list of designated terror organizations across the world by the US state department and found no mention of the RSS in it.Times Fact Check has found that a screengrab from the 2005 film Parzania is being shared with a false claim targeting RSS.