Since the last few years on the occasion of Diwali, a picture called Golden Temple of Amritsar is doing rounds on social media platforms in which one can see countless lanterns flying in the sky above the Golden Temple, while hundreds of people can be seen sitting around the lake. It is being claimed that this sight was seen in Shri Darbar Sahib on the occasion of Diwali. 

A Twitter user shared this image with the caption saying "#GoldenTemple, #Amritsar, #Punjab - #India. #Diwali  is one of the major festivals of the Sanatan Dharma wherein friends and families get together, light 'Diyas' or earthen lamps in their houses, feast on sweet delicacies, exchange gifts, play games, and burn crackers."  Many other Twitter users have shared this image.     

This image is also doing rounds on Facebook with the same claim. 

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found that the viral image is edited. The countless lanterns flying in the sky above the Golden Temple are digitally added. 

With the help of a reverse image search on Google, we found an image of the Golden Temple draped in lights uploaded on September 13, 2016. 

A comparison between the images reveals that lanterns have been digitally added in the right one.

On zooming the image we found a watermark on the image saying 'navkaranbrar1.' On further investigating, we found a tweet by a user named Navkaran Brar who shared this image with the caption, "#HappyDiwali2017 #goldentemple picart by me If you are going to post this then please give proper credit. #amritsar (Copyright)."

When we checked his Instagram profile, we found that Brar has shared this image several times informing that this a 'photoshop work'

Hence, the viral image that is doing rounds on social media platforms purportedly showing a scene of the Golden Temple with countless lanterns flying in the sky during Diwali is photoshopped.