Rumour

Some images are being widely circulated on social media with the claim that bricks brought to build the temple in Ayodhya are being used for the construction of drains by the Uttar Pradesh government. Viral pictures show bricks with 'Shri Ram' inscribed on it being used to construct drains.

On Jan 4 many Congress-supporting Twitter handles shared the images with a caption "Question is of Two Rupee worth faith. The bricks collected in the name of Ram Temple is being used by Contractors of Yogi government for making gutters in Ayodhya. Will the faithful speak? One should learn from BJP about earning by doing a business of faith”. (Caption translated to English).

Mewat Congress tweeted the images with the same caption.

A Facebook user Sunita Rawat also shared the images with the exact same caption.

Another Twitter handle #Lonewold Luv #INC shared the image with a very similar claim.

Our Investigation

 The images were first uploaded by a local journalist from Shahjahanpur Manoj Mishra on Dec 30th. Link to his post.

On Dec 31, he again posted about this issue. This time he uploaded a video as well in which people shared their feedback about using a brick with “Shri Ram” writing on it for making a gutter. 

You can watch the video uploaded by him here:

India Today has also reported that these bricks were supplied from a local brick kiln by the name of 'Shri Ram Khanna and Company'. The brick kiln owner and supplier, Ashok Kumar Khanna, confirmed that he is in the brick manufacturing business for the last 35 years. My father’s name is Shri Ram Khanna and that’s why we inscribe Shri Ram’ on the bricks, he said.

Here are few images of bricks in Ayodhya

Image Credit: India Today

Fact

The images are real, but not from Ayodhya. The gutter in question was constructed in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur town, and none of the bricks sent for the Ram Mandir have been used for constructing the gutter.