Fact check: Old picture of Rajiv Gandhi falsely linked with Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya

0 164

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Ayodhya on August 5, 2020, to lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple, a picture of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has surfaced on social media with claims that it is from Ram Janmabhoomi poojan dated November 9, 1989.
The caption suggests that Congress has done so much for the country and BJP and the Modi Government are only pretending to support Hindutva and are making fools out of Hindus.

The caption in Hindi read: “ये तस्वीरें हैं उस भूमिपूजन की जो 9 नवम्बर 1989 को हो चुका है।
याने कार्तिक मास के शुक्ल पक्ष की एकादशी को, जिसे हम देवउठनी एकादशी कहते हैं।
कोंग्रेस की सरकार ने भी उस समय तिथि का खयाल रखा था।
तब के पण्डे आज की तरह ढोंगी नहीं थे। उन्हें सब बातों का खयाल था।
माफ कीजिये सरकार, आप सिर्फ हिन्दुत्व का ढोंग करते हैं, सनातन वैदिक धर्म व उसकी परम्परा का चुटकी भर ज्ञान नहीं आपको।”
(English Translation, “These are the pictures of Bhoomipoojan dated November 9, 1989.
This is the Ekadashi of the Shukla paksha of Kartik month, which we call devuthani Ekadashi.
The Congress government also took care of the date at that time.
Leaders at that time thought of everything.
You only pretend to support Hindutva, you don’t have a pinch of knowledge of Sanatan Vedic religion and its tradition.”)

ALSO READ: These pictures of saffron painted buildings are not from…

FACT CHECK

NewsMobile fact-checked the above post and found it to be false.
On putting the picture through Google Reverse Image Search, we found this picture in a news article in The Statesman dated May 11, 2019. The caption below the picture states that this old black and white picture is from 1989 where Rajiv Gandhi is seen with Soviet devotees from ISCON.

On digging further, we put the keywords ‘Rajiv Gandhi’ ‘Soviet devotees’ ‘ISKCON’ ‘1989’, and found more information about the picture on commons.wikimedia.org that also claims that this picture of Rajiv Gandhi was taken when he met Russian devotees of Hare Krishna in News Delhi in 1989.

Hence, the above information proves that the picture is from New Delhi and not from Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh as claimed in the post.

If you want to fact-check any story, WhatsApp it now on +91 88268 00707


    FAKE NEWS BUSTER

    Name

    Email

    Phone

    Picture/video

    Picture/video url

    Description

    Click here for Latest News updates and viral videos on our AI-powered smart news