No, This Image Doesn’t Show Hindus Setting a Sikh Man on Fire

The image shows a student trying to self-immolate during anti-Mandal protests.

Fact-Check | The image is being shared with a false claim on the internet.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of a man caught in a blaze as several people try to extinguish the fire is going viral to claim that it shows a Sikh man trying to save his son after the latter was set on fire by "Hindu extremists".

What does the viral post say?: Sharing the image, a user captioned it, "A helpless Sikh father trying to save his son from a fire set by H extremists and H crowd watching it cowardly. Those militants who killed Hindus were encountered but the Sikhs have not got justice till date."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

This post received over 50,000 views on the platform.

Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.

What are the facts?: The image dates back to August 1990, when a student named 'Rajiv Goswami' had attempted self-immolation during the anti-Mandal protests.

How did we find that out?: Using the help of Google Lens, we performed a reverse image search and found the same image shared on Times Content website.

• As per the available details, the image was taken on 20 August 1990.

• Its caption said, "A man tries to extinguish fire on the body of a student protester, Rajiv Goswami, who attempted self-immolation in the Deshbandhu College in South Delhi as a part of the anti -Mandal agitation. This action sparked off a series of attempts of self-immolation by students who were against implementation of Mandal commission's recommendations."

The image captured during Anti-Mandal protests.

(Source: Times Content/Screenshot)

Other sources: The Quint had published a report in 2017 about the anti-Mandal protests, which carried the same image. It talked about students' protests after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report by the then Prime Minister VP Singh.

This report was published on 5 August 2017.

(Source: The Quint)

Conclusion: It is evident that the image is being shared with a false communal claim.

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