A news bulletin screenshot claiming that Tirupati Balaji Temple will donate 1 billion rupees to the under-construction Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, is false.
BOOM spoke to a member of Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra who denied the viral claims. We also tracked the original video clip tweeted on November 11, 2019 from where the now-viral screenshot has been culled.
According to news reports, a massive door-to-door donation drive for the collecting funds for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya began on January 15, 2021. President Ram Nath Kovind has made a donation of Rs 5 lakhs towards the temple construction.
A Hindi caption with the viral post translates to 'Tirupati Balaji temple will donate 1 billion rupees for the construction of Ram temple. Hail lord Ram. #Jai_Shree_Ram_challenge'.
(Hindi: तिरूपति बालाजी मंदिर देगा राम मंदिर निर्माण में 1 अरब रुपये बोलो राजा राम चन्द्र की जय #_जय_श्री_राम_challenge)
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View the viral post below and check its archived version here.
The image is viral from several Facebook profiles.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a keyword search and found reports stating that the donation drive to collect funds for the Ram temple construction began on January 15. We did not find any credible news report about the said donation made by Tirupati Balaji temple.
We then reached out to Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra for more information on the claim. A member of the trust, Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra, told BOOM that the claim was false.
"The donation drive for temple construction will begin a day after Makar Sankranti i.e. January 15. This claim about a 1 billion rupees donation is wrong," Mishra told BOOM.
We also did a keyword search with relevant Hindi words and found a tweet from the Twitter handle of Bharat Samachar. The viral screenshot has been clipped from the video tweeted from this handle on November 11, 2019, two days after Supreme Court's final judgement on the Ayodhya dispute.
BOOM also contacted Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the trust which manages the Tirumala Temple in Andhra Pradesh for an official statement. The report will be updated when we get a reply.
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