Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to perform the consecration ceremony of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir on January 22, 2024.
Ahead of the consecration ceremony, a video is widely being shared on social media in which a person is seen driving by a clock tower that has a hologram of Lord Ram on it.
The video is shared with a caption claiming that it shows the image of Lord Ram on the iconic clock tower in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk.
The caption associated with the video reads, “Lal Chowk, Srinagar. We never expected this scene. This is NEW BHARAT, Jai Shree Ram.”
SouthCheck found the claim to be misleading. The viral video is of Dehradun’s clock tower, not Srinagar.
On searching with the keywords “Srinagar Lal Chowk” we found a video published by ANI on January 1, 2024. The video showed the celebration of the New Year at Lal Chowk.
On closely comparing the image of Lal Chowk with the viral video, we found that the video of the clock tower shown in the viral video is completely different from Lal Chowk. Thus, we could understand that the viral video was not from Lal Chowk.
On further doing a Google Reverse Image Search, we found a screenshot of the video that was uploaded by an X user with a caption that read that the image was not of Lal Chowk but of Dehradun’s Ghantaghar.
Taking a hint, we searched with appropriate keywords and found a video uploaded on the YouTube channel of The Republic TV on January 18, 2024. The video showed images of Lord Ram on the clock tower of Dehradun. The video was shared with the caption, “Uttarakhand: Pictures of Lord Ram projected through laser light on the clock tower in Dehradun.”
On comparing the image of the clock tower shown in the video of The Republic TV and the image of the building present in the viral video, we could find striking similarities between the two.
Moreover, in the viral video, there is a glass building visible behind the clock tower. By using Google Street View, one can observe the same building situated behind the clock tower in Dehradun's Paltan Bazaar.
Additionally, when the vehicle makes a left turn from the clock tower, a board and a traffic light become visible, positioned on the left-hand side of the vehicle. Using Google Street View, we found an identical board and traffic arrangement on the left-hand side of the Paltan Bazaar.Clock Tower.
We found a similar video that was covered by Good News Today on January 18, 2024. The report associated with the video read that ahead of the pran pratishtha ceremony or consecration ceremony in Ayodhya's temple, Lord Ram's image was projected on the clock tower of Dehradun with laser light. Even in this case, when we compared the image of the clock tower shown by GNT with the building in the viral video, we could find similarities between them.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral video is from Dehradun, not Srinagar’s Lal Chowk.
