A photo is being shared on social media claiming it is a recent picture of a Muslim man in tears of joy after the Shivling discovery in the Gyanvapi Mosque. This post described it as a beautiful demonstration of secularism in the country. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent photo of a Muslim in tears of joy after the Shivling discovery in Gyanvapi Mosque.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is an old one. Following the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, on 15 December 2021, Naushad Alam, a visitor from West Bengal had expressed his anguish at the corridor’s high walls hiding the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi. The photo has nothing to do with the alleged Shivling that was reportedly found during the recent survey in the Gyanvapi Mosque. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in a few news articles published in December 2021. They can be seen here, here and here. All these news articles reported it as the picture of a Muslim youth expressing his anguish at the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor’s construction that is hiding the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi. He reportedly expressed his pain of not being able to see the Mosque across from the high walls of the temple.
The full interview video of this Muslim youth was found published on the ‘UP Tak’ YouTube channel. Following the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, on 15 December 2021, the ‘UP Tak’ news channel has conducted this interview asking people about the development in Varanasi. At 4:46 minutes of the video, we could see the same Muslim youth introducing himself as a visitor from Kolkata in West Bengal. While speaking about the situation near Kashi Vishwanath Corridor and Gyanvapi Mosque, he said, “I don’t understand the situation here. They have covered up the Mosque and the mandir was constructed in a grand manner. What is this? I am a tourist here. I can see the things and I can feel the pain”. The Muslim youth mentioned his name as Naushad Alam.
Naushad Aslam questioned whether it is fair to hide one thing while making another thing grandeur. Naushad Alam further added, “Constitution grants everyone equal rights. How can you suppress one’s constitutional rights?”. It can be concluded that the photo shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the Shivling that was reportedly found during the recent survey in the Gyanvapi Mosque.
To sum it up, an old photo is falsely shared as the picture of a Muslim youth in tears of joy after the Shivling discovery in the Gyanvapi Mosque.
