Old video from Kerala shared as RSS rally in poll-bound Haryana

What is the claim?

A video of members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), marching through a street is being shared on social media platforms with a claim that it is from the poll-bound northern Indian state of Haryana. An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video with the caption, “RSS in Haryana. Great to see they are in Hyper Active mode now. All internal issues between RSS & BJP settled. They know MatraBhumi Bharat is beyond any Egos . Proud to be swayamsewak (sic).” The post had 14,000 likes and over 2,800 reposts. An archive of similar posts can be found here and here.

In the run-up to the elections in Haryana, scheduled to be held on October 1, the BJP and the RSS have reportedly been holding marathon meetings to discuss various issues, including ticket distribution. 

Screenshot of the social media posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the video is from the southern Indian state of Kerala's Malappuram district, not Haryana.

How did we find this? 

On conducting a reverse image search, we found the same video was uploaded by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - RSS East Godavari-Andhra Pradesh (archived here) on October 8, 2022. The caption in Telugu reads, “Pathasanchalan at Malappuram, Kerala, on the occasion of #RSSVijayadashami.” Path Sanchalan here refers to a route march.

The video was shared by another Facebook page called Vishwa Samvad Kendra—Kokan (archived here) on October 5, 2022. This outlet also stated that the video showed the RSS marching through Malappuram on the occasion of Vijayadashami (Dusshera), a Hindu religious festival.

This establishes that the video is certainly at least two years old and is not linked to the upcoming Assembly elections in Haryana. 

Geolocating the video!

At 0:04 seconds, we could spot a green road sign that reads "Tanur," a town located in the Malappuram district of Kerala. In the video, we could also see a green signboard on the left, with the words "Co-operative Agricultural & Rural Development Bank." At 0:24 seconds, we could see another store called "Chettinad" across the street. Based on these hints, we could geolocate the visuals to Tirur-Kadalundi Road in Tanur, Malappuram, Kerala.

Clearly, the viral video is at least two years old and is from the Malappuram district in Kerala. We also found similar videos from the march uploaded on YouTube by local channels. The videos can be seen here and here. The RSS routinely holds such route marches in full uniform, especially on Dussehra. 

The verdict

An old video of an RSS rally from Malappuram, Kerala, is being shared with a misleading claim that it is from poll-bound Haryana.