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| - Fact Check: Shivling removal video linked to Kerala really took place in Tamil Nadu
The video attracted angry comments, some of them expletives directed at the state's CPM-led Left Front administration.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is not from Kerala. It's from Tamil Nadu
For the faithful, it could be a disturbing sight - an elderly South Indian woman wailing around a Shivling as police, workers and a crane prepare to remove the sacred statue from the middle of a ground.
The emotive footage, posted on a Facebook page titled Azaad Bharat, recently went viral on social media with captions that Kerala's communist government was razing down Hindu temples. It goes without saying the video attracted angry comments, some of them expletives directed at the state's CPM-led Left Front administration.
But India Today's Viral Test proved that the location on the video was wrongly stamped apparently to generate Hindu disaffection with Kerala's government. The footage, the Viral Test found, in fact originated from Tamil Nadu.
It was posted by Azaad Bharat on July 7, alleging that the "Kerala government is demolishing Hindu temples. Can they demolish a church or a mosque?" In the comment thread below, some even called for voting out the communists in the next assembly elections.
But the Viral Test took a closer look at the clip. The van used to bundle away protesters from the site had VKT Highway Patrol (NH45C) printed on it.
VKT stands for Vikravandi, Kumbakonam and Thanjavur - all three in Tamil Nadu. So, the highway van seen in the footage indeed wasn't patrolling Kerala.
The Viral Test further found out that there were a series of protests in villages along the VKT highway in Tamil Nadu between 2013-2016 as the NHAI tried to remove or relocate some of the ancient temples which fell in the way of a road project.
There were at least two such protests in Viluppuram and Kumbakonam districts where locals resisted action.
India Today spoke to a historian, Dr K Balasubramanian, who had written to the NHAI against its move to demolish a Chola-era Shiv temple.
He had also taken up the matter with the then chief minister, J Jayalalithaa. The campaign, Dr Balasubramanian recalled, resulted in the NHAI sparing the shrine. In the case of Viluppuram as well, the NHAI backtracked following protests and decided against the demolition of a 1,300-year-old Shiv temple.
Azaad Bharat's stands exposed as absolutely false and malicious.
(With inputs from Arjun Deodia)
WATCH | South Indian woman wails as officials prepare to remove Shivling, video goes viral
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