The world’s largest electoral exercise is being carried out in India for electing members for the 18th Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The polling began on April 19th, and as of now, two phases have been completed with 5 phases still remaining.
As India votes to elect its representatives, the voters must beware of political misinformation and fake news spreading on social media platforms. In the last few weeks, Fact Crescendo has debunked such misinformation and published fact-checks which you can read by clicking here and here.
One such video going viral on X (formerly Twitter) claims that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has inaugurated a poultry shop inside a temple complex dedicated to Lord Ram in his Lok Sabha constituency of Wayanad in Kerala.
In the above post, the user claims that the video is of Sitaram Temple in Wayanad, Kerala. The user claims that the temple was a prominent Hindu temple which was usurped by Muslims with help of Rahul Gandhi, who is the Member of Parliament from Wayanad. The user goes on to claim that Rahul Gandhi even inaugurated a poultry shop which is being run inside the temple. The user then argues that if Hindus vote for Congress, then this would be the condition of the entire nation.
However, when we investigated the video, we found that the claims made by the user are completely False. The temple seen in the video is not from Kerala, or even India, but Pakistan. Read our fact-check to know the complete truth.
Fact Check
We did a Google search using keywords relevant to the viral video such as ‘Sitaram Temple Chicken Shop’. And we found a YouTube video posted by a channel called Makhan Ram Jaipal Vlogs. The video is of the same temple that we see in the viral video.
The title of the video is as follows: “Seeta Ram Mandir Became chicken shop after partition|| Condition of Mandir In Pakistan” In the video, the vlogger says that the temple is located in Ahmedpur Sial, a town in the Jhang district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. The Vlogger says that the Seeta Ram Temple is located in a busy market place in Ahmedpur Sial and is centuries old. The temple now lies in dilapidated condition and has been leased out to vendors. One of the vendors who has been given the lease sells chicken meat. The vlogger is a Pakistani Hindu and has posted many vlogs showing the condition of Hindu temples in Pakistan and the life of Pakistani Hindus on his YouTube channel.
While searching online about this temple, we came across an article published a Pakistani website called The Friday Times. The article was published on 12 May 2017. As per the article, the Seeta Ram temple was built in 1887 and was a prominent temple in the city before the partition of India. After the partition, the temple was abandoned and all the valuables inside the temple were looted by the locals. The temple was also attacked by a mob in 1992 following the destruction of Babri mosque in Ayodhya. The temple is now controlled by Pakistan’s Non-Muslims Evacuee Trust which controls all the abandoned Hindu temples and Gurudwaras in Pakistan. The trust has leased out the building to locals to generate revenue.
Read full article here – The Friday Times | Archived Link
You can see the location of the temple in the map given below. The temple is located near Mayo Chowk which was earlier known as Mandir Chowk before it got renamed in the 1980s.
Conclusion
From our investigation, it is clear that the claim made about the viral video is False. The temple seen in the viral video is not from Rahul Gandhi’s Constituency of Wayanad in Kerala. The temple is located in Ahmedpur Sial town in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The temple was abandoned during the Partition and since then it has been ignored by the Pakistan government. The trust established to look after the temple has leased it out to local businesses.
If you come across any such video or any other suspicious content, then forward it to us for fact-checking on our Whatsapp number, 9049053770.
Title:Pakistan Video Falsely Shared as Meat Shop Running in a Ram Temple in Rahul Gandhi’s Constituency of Wayanad
Fact Check By: Harish NairResult: False
