Official RSS page shares old image as Seva Bharati workers working in Kerala flood relief
A set of images along with a donation appeal was shared by the official Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Facebook page with the claim that the individuals in the images were Seva Bharati workers aiding Kerala flood victims. One of the images shared as part of this set shows a reporter with many people standing in the background including a few wearing khakhi shorts resembling the old RSS uniform.
Official RSS page shares old image as Seva Bharati workers working in Kerala flood relief
The image was also widely circulated by many on social media, including the Twitter handle Friends of RSS, which describes itself as an “independent initiative by Swayamsevaks”.
The image is from 2012 Kerala floods
The photograph shared by RSS is not of the recent Kerala floods and was taken during the 2012 floods in the state. The reporter in the image had shared the image that same year.
In August 2012 flash floods triggered by heavy rains in Kozhikode and Kannur districts in north Kerala took the lives of nine people. An image of this event was shared as RSS workers providing aid during the recent Kerala floods. However, this isn’t the only old image reshared with a false narrative.
Images of 2017 Gujarat floods viral on social media as recent Kerala floods
Purported images of RSS workers providing aid and relief to flood-stricken Kerala was widespread on social media with captions carrying a tinge of irony – “Looks like Kerela couldn’t kill all of those RSS Terrorists. Few of them are still alive and are looting the poor flood-struck Keralites.”
Looks like Kerela couldn't kill all of those RSS Terrorists. Few of them are still alive and are looting the poor floodstruck Kerelaites.
Where the hell is PFI, shouldn't they be saving these 100% literate civilians from these chaddi clad barbarians? pic.twitter.com/xPYqVr1Qht
— Biswajit Roy (@biswajitroy2009) August 12, 2018
Twitter users Rishi Bagree and Rajesh KrishnanSimha circulated the same images that drew a combined share of 1,500.
BJP MLA from Karnataka C.T. Ravi also shared photographs of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s “humanitarian efforts”.
Blood Thirsty Commies murdered numerous @RSSorg Karyakartas in Kerala.
— C.T.Ravi (@CTRavi_BJP) August 13, 2018
But when "God's Own Country" crumbled due to severe floods it is the same RSS that saved people & provided them with relief.
This Humanitarian efforts by Nationalists will not be showcased by the Paid Media. pic.twitter.com/IY8iudPEkC
However, these images are actually from Gujarat last year and not Kerala. SM Hoax Slayer found identical images being circulated of RSS workers providing aid during Gujarat flood in August 2017. Multiple users on Facebook had shared the images.
Severe monsoon flooding killed at least 213 in Gujarat last year. Over one lakh residents had to be relocated due to submergence of their homes.
Not isolated incidents
Old or unrelated images have been attributed to RSS several times in the past. In 2015, images of RSS workers in Gujarat was shared as them providing aid during the Nepal earthquake.
Dattatreya Hosabele, a senior RSS functionary based in Nepal, had denied the claims on social media as reported by Nistula Hebbar, the political editor of The Hindu.
Further, the official Twitter handle of RSS had also denied the claim of 20000 RSS workers having reached Nepal.
Media is reporting inflated figures of RSS Swayamsevaks reaching Nepal for rescue work.
— RSS (@RSSorg) April 26, 2015
Last year, Twitter handle @TrueIndology also falsely attributed a picture of a camp in late 1940s East Punjab to RSS.
Recirculating old images as part of a recent or an unrelated event is a mischievous attempt to misinform people. It is advisable to verify photographs viral on social media before believing in them.
Courtesy: www.altnews.in
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Democracy invests in higher education so that graduates may govern themselves well: CJI
Chandigarh (PTI): A democracy does not invest in higher education so that its graduates may simply prosper, it does so to ensure that they govern themselves well, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said on Saturday.
"Every institution of public life -- the courts, the civil services, the schools, the hospitals, the local governance bodies -- all depend for their quality on the calibre of the people who choose to serve within them," the CJI said while addressing the 12th convocation ceremony of the Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh.
Justice Kant said in barely 17 years, the university has earned national accreditation and recognition for its swift growth.
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He told the gathering of students that the degrees conferred on them certify the knowledge they have acquired and they should be proud of it but at the same time, he emphasised that "what your degree does not certify, and no examination can measure -- how your character and judgment hold up once the structure of formal education is no longer around you. In my experience, this ultimately determines the trajectory of life".
The CJI said there are graduates of the most-celebrated institutions who have faltered under pressure, not because they lacked knowledge but because they were never tested by anything other than a school or college examination.
"And then there are professionals from institutions nobody has heard of, who rise with composure and seriousness, earning the confidence of every room they enter," he said.
So what is the distinguishing factor then, he asked the students.
"In my view, it has nothing to do with the talent one may display in the classroom and almost everything to do with upbringing.
"Those who grew up observing their families manage scarcity with dignity, who understood early on that the world does not rearrange itself for your convenience and who entered professional life already knowing that hard work is not just a phase but a permanent state, they carried something that no curriculum can teach. They carried a seriousness that was not performative but genuine," Justice Kant said.
Many of the students present on the occasion carry exactly this formation, he said.
"You grew up in homes where a university degree was not a given but a goal that the entire family organised itself around. The investment by your families was not made so that you could merely earn a comfortable living.
"It was made because they believed, even if they could not always articulate it, that an educated daughter or son would use what they learned to build something beyond themselves," the CJI said.
This belief is the bridge between "what your upbringing gave you and what the world is now entitled to expect from you", he told the students.
The CJI said it is often discussed what education provides to an individual.
It opens doors, boosts earning potential and enhances mobility, he said, adding that however, there is a fundamental question that a congregation at a central university should address.
"What does your education owe to the society that funded it? The resources that build these classrooms, the resources that paid your faculty and the resources that maintained the laboratories where you trained came from the public exchequer. Which means they were derived from citizens' earnings and taxes, many of whom will never set foot in a university themselves," he said.
"This fact creates an obligation. Not a sentimental one, but a structural one. A democracy does not invest in higher education so that its graduates may simply prosper. It invests so that they may govern themselves well...," Justice Kant said.
In the Ramayana, when Bharat was handed the throne of Ayodhya by his father's own decree, he chose to place Ram's "paduka" on the seat of power and govern from Nandigram as a trustee, not as a sovereign, he pointed out.
"This distinction between holding authority for yourself and holding it on behalf of others is what your obligation towards the public means," the CJI said.
He told the students that "wherever your careers take you, carry with you the awareness that our collective life depends on whether educated people choose to engage with the systems around them or simply benefit from them".
Giving the example of a "raider" in a Kabaddi game, the CJI told the students, "Watch the finest raiders carefully.... Their greatness is not in the distance they cover, but in the precision with which they judge the line between ambition and overreach.".
He told the students that as they advance in their chosen careers, they must carry the discipline their families have imparted, the endurance that this landscape has taught them and the straightforwardness that Haryana is known for.
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