Former Aam Aadmi Party member who had recently returned to Congress, Alka Lamba today shared an image on her official Twitter account to allege that temples were opened after the lockdown for receiving donations from the devotees.
Ms Lamba shared a picture of a Hindu temple where the devotees are seen using their mobiles to donate money digitally to the temple.
“It seems that religious places have been opened only for receiving Dakshina (donations). If Lord Hanuman is to be believed, God resides in one’s heart which he had proved it. Stay in homes stay safe,” the English translation of Alka Lamba’s tweet read.
Truth about Alka Lamba’s shared photo
Casting aspersions on the Hindu temples, Ms Lamba, through the image shared by her on her official Twitter account alleged that the temples have opened for the sole purpose of seeking donations. However, the image attached by Ms Lamba in her tweet was not a recent picture but a four-year-old picture from 2016. Moreover, it is a stock image available for purchase online. Ms Lamba used this 4-year-old picture to besmirch the Hindu temples as rapacious centres that have opened following the lockdown to fill up their coffers. The image used by the Congress leader itself has the familiar copyright protection watermark indicating that the image has been taken from a stock image site.
As can be seen from the above image, the picture was from 2016 where people were seen using PayTM to send donations at Shani temple in Shashtri Nagar in Jodhpur. However, Ms Lamba did not care to verify the origins of the image and went ahead to defame the Hindu temples by claiming that as India entered into ‘Unlock-1’ phase when certain restrictions were being lifted by the authorities, temples were busy collecting donations.
Following multiple rounds of lockdown that ended on May 31, the central government ordered a calibrated re-opening of the country starting June 1 with specific set of guidelines about dos and don’t for the people. By June 8, the country had already completed all three phases including the re-opening of offices, malls, restaurants and religious spots based on the assessment by local law enforcement officials.
