Fake alert! UK PM Rishi Sunak did not donate Rs. 1 crore to Ram Temple

Hyderabad: A post claiming that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, is donating Rs. 1 crore for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is doing the rounds on social media.

The post also contains an image of an anonymous cheque as proof of donation.

“Indian-origin Prime Minister of England Rishi Sunak showed his big heart towards Hindutva. He donated ₹1 crore to the England branch of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Your contribution to #Hinduism will be remembered by many generations,” (translated) reads the caption in Hindi.

(Source: Screengrab of the viral post)

NewsMeter found the claim to be false.

We performed a keyword search using the image of the viral cheque and found media reports published on OneIndia on 21 November 2018 and Hindustan Times on 22 November 2018.

The OneIndia report carries the same image of the viral cheque and is titled “RSS worker gave a check of ₹1 crore for the construction of Ram temple.” The article reports, “Former Sangh Chalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has donated ₹1 crore for the construction of Ram temple in Pratapgarh, UP.”

Hindustan Times report titled “Amid Ayodhya build up, RSS man announces rupees 1 crore for temple,” also reports the same. From this we also found out that the name of the donor has been mentioned as Siyaram Gupta, an RSS member from Pratapgarh.

We also found a report by Amar Ujala from 2 August 2020 about the felicitation of RSS leader Siyaram for the huge donation for the construction of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir.

From this, it is evident that UK PM Rishi Sunak did not donate Rs. 1 crore to the Ayodhya Ram Temple. Hence, the claim is false.