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| - Fact Check: False claims of Rajiv Gandhi at Ram temple 'bhoomi pujan' go viral
A photo of former PM Rajiv Gandhi along with some men in religious attire is going viral with the claim that it was taken at the "bhoomi pujan" of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in 1989.
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India Today Fact Check
This is the picture of Rajiv Gandhi receiving a copy of Bhagavad Gita in Russian from Soviet Hare Krishnas of ISKCON in New Delhi in 1989.
Amid reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is participating in the “bhoomi pujan” of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, a black-and-white picture of former PM Rajiv Gandhi along with some men in religious attire is going viral with the claim that it was taken at the “bhoomi pujan” in 1989.
The viral post in Hindi translates to, “The image is of that bhoomi pujan that took place on November 9, 1989, i.e. the ekadashi of shukla paksha of kartik month, which we call dev uthani ekadashi. The then Congress government had considered the specific time for rituals. Priests then were not as deceitful like now. Sorry, but this government only pretends about Hindutva; it doesn’t have an iota of knowledge about Sanatan Vedic religion and its traditions.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral image is not related to any “bhoomi pujan”. This is the picture of late former PM Rajiv Gandhi receiving a copy of Bhagavad Gita in the Russian language from Soviet Hare Krishnas of ISKCON in New Delhi in 1989.
The archived version of the post is saved here. Multiple Facebook users have shared the same post.
With the help of reverse search, we found that this image was published on several websites and also on “Wikimedia Commons”. The image description says, “Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi receives from Soviet Hare Krishnas a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is in Russian. New Delhi 1989”. The copyright of the photo is with ISKCON Russia.
This picture is also among the collage cover photo of a book published by ISKCON. The name of the book is “The Krishna Consciousness Movement in the USSR: A Historical Outline From 1971-89”.
It is true that the Rajiv Gandhi government had allowed “shilanyas” (foundation stone-laying ceremony) adjacent to the then disputed Ram temple site on November 9, 1989. But as per news reports, he had stayed away from the ceremony in Ayodhya ahead of the Lok Sabha elections that year.
Therefore, the viral image of Rajiv Gandhi is not of his participation in the “bhoomi pujan” of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. The Facebook claim is false; the late former PM was meeting Soviet Hare Krishnas.
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