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| - Fact Check: Were temples destroyed to build Kashi Vishwanath Corridor? Old Karnataka video shared with lies
The viral video was from Karnataka, and not Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi. Allegations of the demolition of the Bharat Mata temple were also untrue.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from Karanataka’s Mysuru. In September 2019, the Mahadevamma temple was demolished following a Supreme Court order made in 2009. More than 40 ancient temples were rediscovered during the work on the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. Per the PMO, these were restored while ensuring there was no change in the original structure.
A video of a dozer demolishing a temple has gone viral on social media, with people claiming that in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, about 200 temples and idols (Shivlings) inside them were demolished to build the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. The temple seen in the video was supposedly the 5000-year-old Bharat Mata temple.
Archived versions of the viral clip can be seen here and here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found this claim to be false. The viral video was from Karnataka, and not Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi. Allegations of the demolition of the Bharat Mata temple were also untrue.
AFWA Probe
A reverse search of keyframes of the video led us to news reports from September 2021. As per Times Now and ETV Bharat reports that included screengrabs from the viral video, this video showed the demolition of the Mahadevamma temple in Nanjangud taluk of Mysuru district in Karnataka.
Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah tweeted the same video on September 11, 2021, and said, “I condemn the demolition of an ancient Hindu temple by @BJP4Karnataka govt in Nanjanagudu, Mysuru. The demolition is done without the consultation of the people in the region & has hurt the religious sentiments.”
He added in a follow-up tweet, “Concerned officials have not followed due process. An alternate site should have been provided if the demolition was deemed necessary. @BJP4Karnataka govt is responsible for this act against Hindu sentiments. An alternate arrangements [sic] should be made immediately to restore.”
I condemn the demolition of an ancient Hindu temple by @BJP4Karnataka govt in Nanjanagudu, Mysuru.
The demolition is done without the consultation of the people in the region & has hurt the religious sentiments.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/t1TrZy2s3t — Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) September 11, 2021
Concerned officials have not followed due process. An alternate site should have been provided if the demolition was deemed necessary.@BJP4Karnataka govt is responsible for this act against Hindu sentiments. An alternate arrangements should be made immediately to restore.
2/2 pic.twitter.com/5PooC7TEzY — Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) September 11, 2021
Per an Outlook magazine report, the temple was on a list of illegal religious structures across the state that were to be razed for encroachment. The drive was to comply with a 2009 Supreme Court order, whose implementation was being monitored by the Karnataka High Court.
Last year, a different video of the demolition of the same temple went viral with the claim that it was from Tamil Nadu. At the time, AFWA fact-checked that as well. Thus, we concluded that the video of the temple demolition was not from Varanasi.
But was the supposed 5000-year-old Bharat Mata temple demolished?
The claim of the 5000-year-old Bharat Mata temple’s demolition is not new. In January 2019, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh made the same allegations. A February 2019 Newslaundry report quoted officials from the Archaeological Survey of India, who said that none of the temples in the area were older than the seventeenth century. It also reported that the Bharat Mata temple in question was intact.
The Times of India reported on December 22, 2018, that 126 broken Shivlings were recovered from the debris dumped in Varanasi. This led to the claims from different political leaders that the Shivlings belonged to a temple demolished for constructing Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. However, police refuted the claims, stating that these Shivlings belonged to a dilapidated temple about two kilometres away from the then-proposed corridor.
Reportedly, over 300 properties were acquired to implement the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, adding that more than 40 ancient temples were rediscovered during the work. These were restored while ensuring there was no change in the original structure, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Therefore, we concluded that the claim of temples and Shivlings being demolished was also misleading.
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