Temple in AP Demolished For Road Widening? Video Viral With a False Claim

The video dates back to 2020 when the temple was brought down for renovation.

A video purportedly showing a temple being demolished is being shared on social media with a claim that a temple of Lord Shiva was razed to the ground in Vijaywada to widen the road but the mosque in front of it was left untouched.

The claim targets Andhra Pradesh government and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

However, we found out that the video is old which shows a temple getting demolished for renovation. We spoke with local journalists from the area who shared recent images of the temple to confirm that the temple still stands.

CLAIM

The caption along with the viral posts says, "विजयवाड़ा में एक सड़क चौड़ी करने के लिए एक शिव मंदिर तोड़ा जा रहा है, जबकि उसके ठीक सामनेवाली मजार को हाथ तक लगाने कि हिम्मत नहीं हो रही है वहां के क्रिश्चन मुख्यमंत्री जगमोहन रेड्डी की और यह सब तुम्हारे अंदरूनी फूट का नतीजा देख रहे हो मेरे सनातन हिंदुओं अब भी समय है जाग जाओ।।"

(Translation : A Shiva temple is being demolished to widen a road in Vijayawada, but Christian Chief Minister Jagmohan Reddy didn't have the courage to touch the mazar (mausoleum) in front of it. You can see the result of your internal fights, Sanatan Hindus. There is still time, wake up.)

Archives of more such claims on Facebook and Twitter can be seen here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We fragmented the video into multiple keyframes using InVid Google Chrome extension and then conducted a reverse image search on them using Google.

This led us to a newspaper clipping posted on Facebook on 6 March 2020 about the Vijayawada temple.

By using Google Lens, we translated the report in the picture and it mentioned that the video showed developmental initiatives taken at Sri Vijayeshwara temple in Vijayawada.

The temple was demolished to increase the area of the temple and undergo renovation, said the report.

The Quint reached out to a local reporter from Andhra Pradesh and confirmed that Sri Vijayeshwara Swamy Vari Devasthanam, the temple shown in the video, went under renovation in 2020 while the mosque did not.

We accessed photographs from a local reporter, S Sriram, that show the Vijayeshwara temple and the mosque still standing upright.

The video shows the two structures in front of each other.

Evidently, the video is unrelated to the claims about Andhra Pradesh's government demolishing the temple for widening the roads as it is an old video from 2020 showing the temple going through renovation.

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