Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Main entrance of Mahakaleshwar Lok Corridor collapsed ahead of Prime Minister Dahal’s visit
Fact
Dahal took part in Hindu holy rituals at the temple and no such incident had happened at the temple
Even as Prime Minister Pushpa Dahal, who is widely known by his nom de guerre ‘Prachanda’, completed his four-day official visit to India, many unverified videos linked with PM Dahal and his recent visit are being shared online. One such video claiming that the main entrance to Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, India, collapsed shortly before PM Dahal’s visit is going viral on TikTok. Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had gone to India for a four-day official visit (May 31-June 3) at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had visited the famous Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple in Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh on June 2.
In this context, TikTok user @jaynepal622 posted a 14-second video showing aerial footage of the illuminated Hindu Temple and a clip of Prime Minister Dahal speaking. Text superimposed on the video reads, “The main entrance to holy Shree Mahakaleshwar temple collapse before a sinner like Prachanda [PM Dahal] went inside to worship.” Voiceover accompanying the video presented in a news bulletin style says, “The main entrance of Shree Mahakal Lok Corridor collapsed shortly before Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal went inside the famous Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on June 3 has garnered 2590 likes, 127 users have shared it, and 162 people have commented on it.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker closely observed the video and found that the video carries several clips. Then we split the video into several keyframes and conducted reverse searches on them. The searches on the frame showing the temple pointed us towards the Mahakaleshwar temple in Madhya Pradesh state of India. However, we couldn’t find the original video.
Further, we conducted a reverse search on the frame showing Prime Minister Dahal speaking on the microphone. The search led us to a video posted on the YouTube Channel named after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The video posted on June 1 showed the joint press meet at Hyderabad House in Delhi during Dahal’s India visit. On checking the video thoroughly, we found that the frame from 25.17-minute onwards exactly matched the six-second clip depicting PM Dahal addressing the press meet.
We also looked up for reports of damage or collapse of the main entrance of Mahakaleshwar Temple during Prime Minister . We didn’t find any relevant results. According to NDTV online, a red carpet was laid in the temple premise to welcome PM Dahal and his delegation. Donning a saffron-coloured shawl, Dahal took part in religious rituals at the Hindu shrine. He also offered 100 ‘Rudraksh’ and Rupees 51,000 at the temple.
Our verification showed that no such incidents had occurred during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain.
Conclusion
Thus, the viral video claiming that the entrance to Mahakaleshwar Lok Corridor collapsed shortly before the visit of Prime Minister Dahal is misleading.
Result: False
Narendra Modi /YouTube, 1 June, 2023
Narendra Modi /Twitter, 12 Oct, 2022
NDTV, 2 June 2023
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
