A video of a fire engine spraying a Taj Mahal replica at an amusement park in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh is being passed off as the real Taj Mahal receiving a massive facelift ahead of the US presidential visit to Agra.
The president of United States Donald Trump is all set to arrive in Agra and visit the Taj Mahal, along with first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner on February 24, 2020. This is Trump's first visit to the country after becoming president, and he is slated to visit three cities, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Agra, before he heads back to Washington on Tuesday.
The video shows a fire engine releasing water to wash the minarets and the main monument like structure of the Taj replica.
The caption, when translated to English, reads, "When the Taj Mahal is bathed for Trump. Taj and Bapu (read: Mahatma Gandhi) are same. Modi talks ill about them and they are also taken care of because his vested interests."
(Original text in Hindi:जब ट्रम्प के लिए ताजमहल को नहलाया गया: "ताज और बापू एक जैसे हैं, मोदी से गालियाँ भी खाते हैं और खुद के स्वार्थ के लिए दुलार भी पाते हैं." )
The video is viral in the wake of the presidential visit to Agra, which has been beefed up with security. PM Modi will not be accompanying Trump in the same.
It is also doing the rounds on Twitter with a similar narrative.
बादशाह सलामत का रुतबा आज भी है ताजमहल धुलवाने के लिए मोदी को रखा हुआ है।🤔 pic.twitter.com/uzxtuS64I5
— Jagmohan Kaushal (@JagmohanKausha2) February 23, 2020
Fact Check
BOOM was able to ascertain that the video is not of the real Taj Mahal , as vehicle entry is restricted in the area. Furthermore, the flooring of the area is not similar to the 338-year old mausoleum.
Upon relevant keyword searches, we found that the video is from an amusement park in Bhopal, People's Mall, which has installed a Taj Mahal replica a few years ago. Multiple videos of this replica matched with the structures visible in the viral footage.
Below is a comparison of the structure of the Taj Mahal replica, along with the footage of the viral video.
BOOM also compared the flooring of both the amusement park and the viral footage.
BOOM also reached out to an employee of the real estate company which constructed People's Mall, who confirmed that the video is from the amusement park.
"This is from the People's Mall in Bhopal, which has the seven wonders of the world. The structure of the Taj Mahal replica is one of them. The entire amusement park is set up on 200 acres of area," said the employee, who did not wish to be named. However, it is unclear when the video was shot.
Reports of beautification of the area around the Taj have been doing the rounds. An excerpt from a Business Standard report read, "On Saturday, this reporter found everyone from gardeners to masons working at breakneck speed. If gardeners were on ground designing grass in star pattern (a feature of Mughal architecture), masons were fixing broken tiles and leaking fountains. Then there were others cleaning paan (betel leaf) stains."
However, it is unlikely that the heritage structure would be given a water bath as shown in the viral video because water has tendencies of discolouring the structure. To remove discoloration, the monument has earlier been cleaned five times earlier with Fuller's earth or the Multani Mitti, which absorbs dirt, grease and animal excrement.
In fact, the same treatment has been used to clean the replicas of the two graves of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal located inside the Taj Mahal for the first time, ahead of the presidential visit. Their real graves are in a chamber below the replica.