By: Ankita Kulkarni
April 17 2023
Fake letter attributed to RSS claims it asked Hindu men to 'entrap' Muslim women
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The letter has been fabricated and circulated with false assertions. The letter has several discrepancies.
Claim ID 44bfa0f7
Context
A letter circulating under the name of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghis (RSS) viral on Twitter and Facebook, with the claim that the organization has urged Hindu men to “entrap” Muslim women and convert them to Hinduism. The purported letter contains 12 tips on “how to trap” Muslim women. It states that Hindu men should first gain their trust, get into relationships with Muslim women and then try to convert them. It also adds that RSS would provide 15 days of training for this, and 5 lakh rupees be provided to a new couple for setting up their home.
However, Logically Facts has found that the purported letter is fake and has been falsely attributed to the RSS.
In Fact
Initial research showed no media reports on such a letter issued by the RSS. No such leaflets were posted on RSS's official social media handles. Analyzing the viral letter carefully, we found some discrepancies as it ends with no signatories and contains no date. It only notes, “Copy To- Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Samaj, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Sena, Hindu Yuva Vahini, Samast Hindu Samaj.”
The logo in the viral letter is different from the one that can be seen in the other official letters we found on the official RSS website. Secondly, the official logo contains a tagline written below in Hindi, which is missing in the viral letter. Third, the letterhead font and the alignment of sentences are also different in both. The text is middle aligned on the official letterheads, while the text in the viral one is aligned to the right.
The placement where the dates appear in the official letters is different compared to the viral letter, which does not mention any date or undersignees. We can also observe typographical errors in Hindi, in point 4 the word ‘message’ is written as ‘massage’, and 9 point has a grammatical error in Hindi sentences.
Furthermore, RSS Head of Media Relations Sunil Ambekar clarified that the letter is fake. He wrote in a Twitter post, “This leaflet circulating in the social media in the name of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is completely false. (Translated from Hindi)”
The Verdict
A fake letter has been attributed to the RSS and has been circulated with a false claim that it asks Hindu men to entrap Muslim women and convert them to Hinduism. The RSS has not sent out any such official letter or leaflet. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.
