Media Falsely Reports Demolition Of Temples In Rajasthan As 'Revenge Of Jahangirpuri Demolition Drive'

A few days back in Rajasthan's Alwar, the municipality bulldozed three temples and 86 shops. During this encroachment drive, a 300-year-old temple was also demolished. It is alleged that the idols of deities, including Lord Shiva and Hanuman, installed in the temple have been vandalized. After this incident, blame game started between the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party. BJP alleged that the Congress government wanted to please its vote bank by doing appeasement politics, which is why the 300-year-old temple was demolished. On the other side, Rajasthan minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said that BJP is lying. He said that the chairman of Rajgarh Urban Bodies Board is from BJP. In the board, 34 members are from BJP, and one member is from Congress. He has brought down the temples and houses for road widening by bringing a proposal to the board. At his behest, the temple was demolished.

In the same backdrop, several news channels ran a video report claiming that the demolition of the 300-year-old temple in Rajasthan was in response to the Jahangirpuri demolition. Several media channels ran a video report with a title "Bulldozer ran in the temple, 'revenge' of Jahangirpuri." It is being claimed that two days after the removal of encroachments in Jahangirpuri, the Rajasthan government demolished a 300-year-old temple in Alwar.

News18 anchor Aman Chopra during his show "Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge" ran a programme with the title "जहांगीरपुरी का बदला महादेव पर हमला" [Revenge For Jahangirpuri, Attack on Mahadev] in which he claimed Rajasthan government demolished the temples in Alwar Rajasthan in response to encroachment drive conducted in Jahangirpuri, Delhi. He ran visuals of the Jahangirpuri demolition drive and described it as an incident of 20 April, while playing the video of the temple demolition in Alwar, he described this as an incident of 22 April. Aman Chopra had also tweeted the thumbnail of his show which he deleted later. However, you can see the screenshot of the viral tweet below.

After the video went viral, News18 also deleted the video from their YouTube channel. However, we managed to get the clip of the show as it is being widely shared on Twitter. In this video report Aman Chopra can be heard saying "Jahangirpuri's revenge, Attack on Mahadev. It is such a big coincidence that 2 days ago a bulldozer ran at the gate of the mosque in Jahangirpuri, Delhi and today 3 temples were demolished in Alwar, Rajasthan. A temple is 300 years old. Is this such a big coincidence or is there some connection. Is this Jahangirpuri's revenge?".

Republic Bharat TV channel tweeted a promo of its show '5 Ka Prahaar' in which the news anchor can be heard saying, "Hindus faith hurt, fault in Gehlot's intention! Bulldozer ran to the temple, Is this a revenge of Jahangirpuri? Battle of Delhi, action in Rajasthan."

During a Zee News show, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Congress party of trying to give communal colour to the demolition drive conducted in Delhi's Jahangirpuri. After the bulldozer ran on 300-year-old temple, it shows that Congress is doing revenge vote bank politics. This statement of Sambit Patra can be heard from 2 hours 23 minutes 10 seconds.

This claim was also shared by BJP Rajasthan, Ramlal Sharma, BJP MLA Chomu, Priyanka Singh Rawat, EX BJP MP, Jaskur Meena, MP, Dausa, Rajasthan.

It is being widely shared on social media as well.

Claim:

Temple in Alwar, Rajasthan was demolished 2 days after the encroachment drive conducted in Jahangirpuri, Delhi.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian Fact Check verified the claim and found it to be false. The temple was demolished in Rajasthan on April 18 while the Jahangirpuri encroachment drive was conducted on April 20.

During the initial investigation, we found the video report of the NDTV dated 20 April 2020 in which visuals of the Jahangirpuri demolition drive can be seen.

On searching for the news report of the Rajasthan demolition drive, we found a news report of The Times of India and Aaj Tak. According to the report of TOI, an anti-encroachment drive at Rajgarh in Alwar was conducted on April 17-18. AajTak report quoted the Alwar district administration as saying the encroachment was removed on April 17 and 18. The report also mentioned that during this there was no protest nor did the law and order situation arises.

On searching more, we found the same video shared by several Twitter users on 18 April which suggests that the demolition drive was conducted by the Rajasthan government before the Jahangirpuri incident.

Zee News on April 17, also tweeted about the action taken on houses and shops under the master plan in Rajgarh in Alwar district. According to it, about 175 shops were affected. Many machineries including 6 JCB, 2 LNT and 10 tractors are engaged in this work. Some social media users also shared visuals of the demolition drive on April 18.

Conclusion:

Our investigation shows that the incident of demolition of 3 temples in Alwar, Rajasthan actually took place on 17 and 18 April, two days before the demolition of the Mosque in Jahangirpuri, Delhi which took place on 20 April. The claim of Alwar's temple being demolished out of revenge after the Jahangirpuri incident made by several news channels is false.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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