No, Rajasthan Government Has Not Allocated Rs 100 Cr For a Dargah

Rajasthan govt has allocated Rs 100 crore to a project involving religious places of all faiths.

Several people on the internet claimed that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had allocated Rs 100 crore to a dargah in the state.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Several people on the internet claimed that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had allocated Rs 100 crore to a dargah in the state, insinuating how volunteers have to go door to door to collect money for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya whereas Islamic religious places get state patronage.

However, The Quint found that the claim is misleading and the Rajasthan government has allocated Rs 100 crore in its annual budget for a project involving religious places of all faiths and not just Islam.

CLAIM

The viral claim is being shared on both Facebook and Twitter with a screenshot of an advertisement — thanking CM Gehlot for allocating Rs 100 crore for a dargah — which appeared in Hindi daily Rajasthan Patrika.

Originally in Hindi, when translated to English the claim reads: “We Hindus are going door to door to collect funds for the Ram Temple. On the other hand, Rajasthan government has allocated Rs 100 crore to a dargah.”

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of this tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND

We searched for news reports related to the 2021-22 Budget of Rajasthan government. This directed us to a report by news agency PTI published in Outlook.

According to this report, the Rajasthan government allocated Rs 500 crore as the budget for tourism, which includes a religious tourist circuit.

(Source: Outlook/Screenshot)

There was no mention of Rs 100 crore being allocated to a single religious place. This raised our suspicion and we found another Economic Times report which also mentioned that out of Rs 500 crore allocated to the tourism sector, Rs 100 crore will be earmarked to develop religious tourism circuits.

Next, we searched the Budget document and found that point number 213 on page 74 and 75 clearly mentioned that Rs 100 crore had been allocated to the Religious Tourism Circuit project, which was aimed at connecting the major religious places of worship of all faiths — Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Muslim — with one another.

(Source: Rajasthan Government Budget Document/Screenshot)

The Quint spoke to Harsh Khatana, special correspondent covering Rajasthan politics for Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar who corroborated these details.

We also searched the editions of Rajasthan Patrika to find the advertisement in the viral screenshot and found that the daily carried this advertisement on 12 March.

(Source: Rajasthan Patrika/Screenshot)

Clearly, the Gehlot government didn’t allocated Rs 100 crore for the development of a dargah in the state.

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