JNU Students With Anti-RSS Placards Not Part of Fee Hike Protest

The protest was held in the backdrop of Rohith Vemula’s suicide in 2016.

A picture which shows a student protest is being shared on Twitter and Facebook in the light of the ongoing protests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University against the hostel and mess fee hike.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A picture which shows a student protest is being shared on Twitter and Facebook in the light of the ongoing protests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University against the hostel and mess fee hike.

The claim alongside the picture reads, “ ये पोस्टर ध्यान से देखिए ..#JNU के प्रोटेस्ट का सारा सच समझ मे आ जाएगा .............JNU के होनहार छात्रों प्रोटेस्ट तो फीस बढ़ोतरी के विरोध में था न, फिर ये RSS की तख्ती क्यों | (Look at these posters and you will understand the truth behind the JNU protests. The students were protesting against fee hike then why are the posters against the RSS)."

This picture has been shared by multiple users on Facebook and Twitter. (Source: Twitter)

With over 3,500 followers, the same picture was shared by a Twitter user called ‘India with RSS’. The photograph was part of a picture collage shared by the Twitter handle.

(Source: Twitter/India With RSS)

Multiple users shared this picture on Facebook with the same claim.

(Source: Twitter)

TRUE OR FALSE?

False.

This picture is as old as 2016 when students from across the country marched till the RSS headquarters in Delhi after PhD scholar Rohith Vemula killed himself in his hostel room in January 2016.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a reverse image search using Yandex search engine, we came across a report published by an online portal Catchnews on 2 February 2016 according to which students from across the country had marched to RSS headquarters in Delhi following Rohith Vemula’s death on 17 January, 2017. Following the student march, the police reportedly thrashed these protesters.

(Source: Catch News)

Taking a cue from this report and the slogan written on the protesters board, we used ‘SFI Rohith Vemula RSS’ to find more details of the incident. We stumbled upon a video which was uploaded by ‘SFI JNU Unit’ nearly four years ago.

We could match the same protest boards in the video with the ones in the viral image.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

According to the video description, the incident happened on 30 January, 2016.

“The students were demanding action against HCU VC Appa Rao and Union ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani,” the video description read.

We also came across a news bulletin by ABP News which had reported on the incident.

Clearly, an old picture from a protest against the RSS have been resurfaced to claim that the students of JNU are targeting the organisation while protesting the fee hike.

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