By Archis Chowdhury
A video showing a few women weeping, while a godown is being shut down and sealed, is being shared online as Tamil Nadu government representatives confiscating Ganesh idols from an idol maker in Karur, Tamil Nadu, under false accusations of using illegal chemicals. The viral captions shared with the video further claim that Ganesh pandals and idols have been banned by the Tamil Nadu government.
BOOM found these claims to be false; we reached out to the idol maker Satra Ram - whose idols are seen being confiscated in the viral video - who confirmed to us that he did in fact use plaster of Paris in making the idols, which is one of the chemicals banned by the state. Furthermore, we found no such credible news reports stating that Ganesh idols and pandals have been banned by the southern state.
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Right-leaning X user (formerly Twitter) MeghUpdates shared the video with the caption, "Karur, Tamilnadu- Heartrenching video of Ganesha idol makers begging the pollution control board people to not seal their godown has gone viral on SM.
The charges are that these idols have "synthetic" paint. The makers deny it .They requested with folded hands & tears in eyes, it is money they took on loan and this is the only season where they can sell their work.
The poor souls even tried to explain with proof that mo synthetic is used but to no avail.
Note: Revenue worth Crores are taken from 38000 sanatan temples & their lands."
Click here to view an archive of the above tweet.
We also received a similar caption on WhatsApp with the exact same video. This caption further added, "Now Ganesh Pandals and Moortis banned by Tamilnadu govt on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. People who make such Moortis are arrested and idols are broken in front of them saying Chemicals and synthetic paint used."
A few posts on Facebook also carried this caption with the viral video.
You can find them here and here.
Many of the viral captions insinuated that there was an anti-Hindu communal motive behind this confiscation.
Fact Check
BOOM did a keyword search with "tamil nadu ban ganesh idols pandals", but were unable to find any credible news report on Ganesh idols and pandals being banned in the state.
We found a tweet on this matter from the official account of the Collector's office at Karur, which stated that the idols were confiscated due to the use of materials like plaster of Paris, which are "strictly forbidden".
We also noticed that the viral video had the logo of local TN news outlet Polimer News in the frame, which cued us to the possibility that the video might be an excerpt from a report done by the news outlet.
We reached out to Arul Selvan, a reporter for Polimer News in Karur, who had covered this incident. Selvan informed us that the person seen in the viral video is Satra Ram, whose idols worth Rs. 10 lakh has been confiscated and sealed by the collector's office.
He also provided us the original video, shared by Polimer News on YouTube, and told BOOM that Satra Ram had admitted to using plaster of Paris, contrary to what the viral claims stated.
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BOOM then reached out to Satra Ram, who also admitted to us that the allegations of using plaster of Paris by the collector's office were correct, and that he was not informed of a ban on the use of plaster of Paris before making the idols, ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi.
"People would come and check my work and said the idols were good, but no one told me not to use it (plaster of Paris)," he explained over a telephone conversation.
Satra Ram also mentioned that idols made of plaster of Paris were being sold in Trichy, Chellam and Madurai. "I pleaded to the authorities to allow these idols to be sold, because they were already made. I had taken a loan of Rs. 10 lakh to make these idols, I will not be allowed to go back to my village in Rajasthan if I do not recover this amount," he told us.
BOOM was unable to independently verify his claim of idols made of plaster of Paris being sold in Trichy, Chellam and Madurai.
However, Satra Ram's statement refute the claim that the confiscation of the idols were done under false allegations of the use of illegal chemicals, and BOOM found no communal angle to the entire incident.
