US President Donald Trump, who is on a two-day visit to India, arrived in Agra with his wife Melania on Monday, 24 February, to visit Taj Mahal. He was previously in Ahmedabad where, with PM Modi, he attended the mega ‘Namaste Trump’ event at Motera Stadium.
CLAIM
Right before Trump was to visit Taj Mahal, a video was shared on social media that claimed that the last-minute cleaning of the majestic monument was still underway.
Taking a dig at the government, Twitter user ‘Aaftab Hasan’ shared the video and wrote, “To show Donald Trump the cleaning of Taj Mahal is underway.”
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The video has also made its way to Facebook.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
We found a tweet that suggested that the structure in question is a “replica” of Taj Mahal in Bhopal.
Upon searching on YouTube using keywords ‘taj mahal bhopal’, we found a video uploaded in August 2017 with the caption: “PEOPLE'S MALL - PEOPLE'S MALL BHOPAL, MP, INDIA”. From 9:48 minutes onwards, one can see a Taj Mahal-like structure in the video.
Subsequently, we used Google Earth to find out whether People’s Mall in Bhopal has a structure similar to Taj Mahal. The street view on Google Earth showed us images of the Taj Mahal-like structure in People’s Mall.
We also found that the structure shown in the viral video has several visual differences with the Taj Mahal in Agra.
The floor in the viral video (left) is not the same as the one seen in Agra’s Taj Mahal (right). Also, the structure seen on the passage that leads to Taj Mahal is different in the viral video and Taj Mahal in Agra (highlighted in blue).
While they are different from Taj Mahal in Agra, they match the ones seen in People’s Mall in Bhopal, as can be seen in the Google Earth photos.
Clearly, a video of a Taj Mahal-like structure in People’s Mall in Bhopal has been shared to claim that the cleaning of Agra’s Taj Mahal was underway just before US President Donald Trump was about to visit the monument.
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