A video showing a temple bathed in lights is viral on social media with captions falsely claiming that the video shows the renovated look of Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
BOOM found that the temple seen in the viral video is not Kashi Vishwanath but Somnath temple located near Veraval, Gujarat.
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According to news reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor Project on December 13, 2021. A report published in The Hindu on November 12, 2021 said that the project will connect the temple with the ghats of river Ganga. The project comprises a paved walkway around 320 metres long and 20 metres wide. The video is viral in this backdrop.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sudarshan Bhagat shared the video on his verified Facebook page with a Hindi caption translating to 'This is Varanasi's (Kashi) Vishwanath temple. This is what development looks like and this is why we say if Modi is there, it's possible'.
(Hindi: यह है वाराणसी ( काशी) का विश्वनाथ मन्दिर इसे कहते हैं विकास और इसे कहते हैं कि मोदी है तो मुमकिन है !!! Narendra Modi PMO India Amit Shah Banaras Ki Galiyan BJP Uttar Pradesh. #banaras #BJP4IND #BJP4UP)
Click here to view the post.
The video has been shared by multiple Facebook users calling the temple Kashi Vishwanath.
Fact Check
BOOM watched the video closely and checked its reply section. We found several users commenting that the video shows Somnath temple in Gujarat.
Taking cue, we performed an internet search with related keywords and found a tweet from the official Twitter handle of Gujarat tourism which had pictures of a temple which resembles the one seen in the viral video.
The Gujarat Tourism tweet on April 5, 2018 reads 'Glimpses of the magical 3D projection mapping based light and sound show at Somnath Temple near Veraval. The show narrates the rich history of the temple in Amitabh Bachchan's baritone voice'.
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BOOM also found an Instagram post sharing the same video from March 11, 2021. The caption with the video reads 'Jay Somnath Mahadev'.
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We also found a tweet from the official Twitter handle of Shree Somnath Temple sharing a video of 'Diwali Special Decoration At Shree Somnath Temple'. The temple seen in the video is same as the one seen in the now viral video.
We also compared the temple seen in the viral video with the one seen in the video uploaded on Somnath temple's official Twitter account and found them to be the same.
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