An edited photo of a 3D visualisation of a vedic planetarium in West Bengal is being shared with false claims that it shows the proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
The photo is viral with the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra trust all set to hold the ground breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister of all states are likely to attend the event, bringing an end to a decades long fight over the religious site.
The viral image shows a grand structure with golden domes and small water bodies in the front lawn area and is being shared with a caption, ''Architectural view of proposed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.''
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
The image is also viral on Twitter with the false claim
ಮಿತ್ರರೇ, ಅಯೋಧ್ಯೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣವಾಗಲಿರುವ ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ ಮಂದಿರದ ವಾಸ್ತುಶಿಲ್ಪದ ಮಾದರಿ. Architectural view of proposed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya 🙏🚩🕉️ pic.twitter.com/XjdNfzYsb8
— Harry Dsouza, Mangaluru 🙏🇮🇳 💯 (@ds79131542) July 22, 2020
Also read: Akhilesh Yadav Tweet Against Construction Of Ram Mandir Is Fake
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on Google and found that the image is an edited version of a model of the under construction Vedic Planetarium and temple at the ISKCON headquarters in Mayapur, West Bengal.
The reverse image search showed results to ISKCON's Vedic temple with more visuals of the same structure on the ISKCON News site. The images show that except for a few cosmetic changes like the colour of the dome which is golden in the edited image and changes to the lawn area outside the temple, the overall architecture remains similar to the under construction ISKCON temple.
BOOM found a documentary on the Vedic temple which showed the exact same structure and compared stills of the structure with the viral photo.
Left :Viral photo | Right : Original photo
Screengrab from the documentary of the construction of ISKCON's Temple of Vedic Planetarium
We also found a blog on the construction plan of The Temple of Vedic Planetarium, which stated that the project of the construction of the 520,000-square-foot temple started on September, 2009 and aim to inaugurate on or around Guru Purnima, 2022. We also found the same photo on the the website for the temple and planetarium.
BOOM has previously debunked the same viral image when it was being shared as Ram Temple and ISKCON's communication director Yudhistir Das had then confirmed to us that the viral image was a edited and is similar to its under construction temple at Mayapur. Read here
We further looked for the actual architectural plan of the Ram temple to be built in Ayodhya and found several news reports on the construction of the temple whose model was designed three decades ago by Chandrakant Sompura and his two sons. A report by Times Now, showed the actual plan of the temple with glimpses of the architecture, with no resemblance to the viral photo.
Also read: No, This Is Not An Image Of The Shivling Found At Ayodhya