A claim that Tirumala Tirupati Balaji will donate Rs 1 billion(100 crore) for constructing Ram temple in Ayodhya is circulating on social media. One Chanda Roy also posted the message on Facebook.
A tweet by the parody handle of Journalist Pushpendra Kulshrestha with the claim has garnered close to 4,500 retweets so far.
दक्षिण का ताज “तिरूपति बालाजी मंदिर”#राम_मंदिर_निर्माण हेतु देगा एक अरब रुपये
🙏 जय श्री राम 🙏
— Pushpendra Kulshrestha (@Nationalist_Om) November 10, 2019
Many other people on Facebook and Twitter shared the same claim.
Bharat Samachar ‘screengrab’
A screengrab of Uttar Pradesh TV channel Bharat Samachar’s broadcast was shared by several individuals which gave credence to the claim.
Media reports
Alt News found a video report published by Bharat Samachar, which claimed that India’s richest temple trust Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams will donate Rs 1 billion for construction Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. With a relevant keyword search on Bharat Samachar’s Twitter handle, we found a tweet which carried a video of the same news report.
#BharatSamachar #Delhi :- राम मंदिर निर्माण के लिए तिरूपति बालाजी मंदिर देगा एक अरब रुपए. pic.twitter.com/hAbtMOLvkN
— भारत समाचार (@bstvlive) November 11, 2019
Malayalam news portal East Coast Daily published a report titled, “Tirupathi Balaji Temple Trust to donate 100 crore Rs for construction of Ayodhya Ram mandir”.
Temple authorities dubs it “fake news”
Alt News found that the claim about Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam(TTD) donating Rs 100 crore for construction of Ram Mandir is false. In an email response regarding the authenticity of the news reported by the above outlets, the PRO office at TTD said, “Kindly note that it is a fake news.” Thus clarifying that no such announcement for donation was made by the temple authorities.
In conclusion, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has denounced the reports about the temple offering a lavish donation of Rs 100 crore for the construction of Ram temple after the Supreme Court’s recent verdict on the Ayodhya land dispute.
