A video is being widely shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of PM Narendra Modi circumambulating around the Kedarnath temple when he was 26 years old. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing the visuals of PM Narendra Modi circumambulating around the Kedarnath temple.
Fact: The man circumambulating around the Kedarnath temple in the video is Kedarnath temple priest Santosh Trivedi, not PM Narendra Modi. Protesting the Uttarakhand government’s decision of enacting the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board act, Santosh Trivedi circumambulated the Kedarnath Temple on his hands. The video has nothing to do with PM Narendra Modi. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals was found published by a Facebook page named ‘Sri Kedarnath Jyothirling’, on 23 June 2021. This Facebook page reported it as the visuals of a Kedarnath priest circumambulating around the Kedarnath temple. Reporting the same, a few other YouTube channels have also published the same videos in 2021. They can be seen here and here.
When we searched for further sources on the internet, we found a similar video in an article published by the ‘ETV Bharat’ news website on 21 June 2021. ‘ETV Bharat’ reported that the man circumambulating in the video was Kedarnath temple priest Santosh Trivedi. Protesting the Uttarakhand government’s decision of enacting the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board act, Santosh Trivedi circumambulated around the Kedarnath Temple on his hands. A few other news articles that reported Kedarnath priests’ protest against setting up of the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board can be seen here and here.
While receiving the first copy of the ‘Sadhu Se Sevak’ book, written by ‘Aaj Tak’ Correspondent Manjit Negi, Narendra Modi shared his association with multiple spiritual places in Uttarakhand. Narendra Modi reportedly said he used to regularly go to Kedarnath Temple and offer water to the god when he lived in Garudchatti.
To sum it up, the man circumambulating around the Kedarnath temple in the video is Kedarnath temple priest Santosh Trivedi, not PM Narendra Modi.
