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| - A photo showing an excavator pulling down a temple is doing the rounds on social media with a claim that it shows a temple which was demolished during the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
Multiple properties, including houses, shops and temples were demolished to acquire land for the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor in Varanasi, which connects the temple to the ghats of the Ganges.
However, the claim is misleading. The photo of the temple being demolished dates back to 2015, and shows Rojgareshwar Mahadev temple in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The temple, along with many other structures, was demolished to make way for the Jaipur metro route.
CLAIM
The photo is being shared with text in Hindi, which translates to “When the corridor was being built in Kashi, many temples, idols and shivlings were scattered all around. The souls of those who call themselves religious did not awaken then, and they are sharing their knowledge now.”
WHAT WE FOUND
We cropped the photograph and ran a reverse image search on it using Google. The result led us to a tweet by user ‘Reclaim Temples’ from 2016, which carried the same photograph.
The user noted that it showed the demolition of “centuries old Rojgareshwar Mahadev temple” in Jaipur, under Rajasthan’s former Vasundhara Raje led government in 2015.
Looking up the name of this temple led us to a news report by Hindi news organisation Amar Ujala, from 2015.
The article carried another photograph of the temple’s demolition process, which showed similarities to the photo in the claim.
The Quint had also reported on the Rojgareshwar Mahadev temple’s demolition. As per our 2015 report, the demolition of temples for metro development drew flak from locals and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who responded with a chakka jam (road blockade) to mark their protest.
WERE TEMPLES RAZED DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF KASHI VISHWANATH CORRIDOR?
As the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor, which aimed to connect the ghats of the Ganges to the temple commenced in 2019, demolition drives took place in Varanasi for the same.
Many locals lost their houses and shops in the drive, which also damaged and demolished multiple temples in the city in the process. The Quint spoke to Varanasi residents in 2019, who told us about their plight.
Clearly, an old photo of a temple being demolished in Jaipur, Rajasthan, to clear space for the construction of the Jaipur Metro is being wrongly shared in connection with the temples that were demolished during the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
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