Muslim shrine in Hindu religious site? India Today conducts Fact Check of inflammatory video
An inflammatory video was doing rounds on social media claiming that Muslims were trying to take over the Hindu religious site at the Gita Updesh Sthali in Kurukshetra, Haryana. The video featured a man who while making alarming claims that Muslims even constructed a “mazaar” or a shrine there, urged Hindus to share the video so that authorities could be alerted to this development and action could be taken against it.
The sacred Hindu site is believed to be the site where Lord Krishna taught Arjuna about the tenets of the Bhagavad Gita.
Showing a structure which he claimed was the Muslim shrine, covered in a blue cloth that had the numbers “786” printed on it alongside text in Hindi that read, “Jai Peer Baabe di,” or glory to the Peer Baba, the man in the video alleged that this was a conspiracy by Muslims to take over the Hindu religious site.
Throughout the video, he ignited “true Hindus” to oppose this.
This video was also shared by Sudarshan News on its social media stating, “Land Jihad in Kurukshetra? A shrine built on the spot where Lord Krishna preached the Gita to Arjuna? Is this a conspiracy to capture the holy Hindu pilgrimage site?”
After conducting the Fact Check, The India Today found these claims absolutely false. It found that the structure that was claimed to be a Muslim shrine was actually built by a Hindu family in the memory of an ancestor several years ago. Police, too, have called the claims of a Muslim shrine at the location baseless. Kurukshetra DSP Subhas Chandra confirmed that the structure in question had nothing to do with Muslims or Islam and asserted that the rumour was triggered by mischievous elements who placed a cloth with ‘786’ and ‘Jai Peer Baabe di’ written on it.
Vinod Sharma, a member of the family that constructed the structure at the Gita Updesh Sthali told that his family had constructed the structure several years ago.
