A controversy has erupted after a purported e-mail from a school in Bengaluru asked many of its former students to change the name of Varanasi's Gyanvapi Masjid to Gyanvapi Temple on Google Maps.
Though sent in bulk with an identical text, the purported e-mail addresses every recipient by name. "Please update on Google map as a Gyanvapi Temple instead of gyanvapi mosque. You are requested to do it and ask our Hindu brothers and sisters to do it till google update this changes. Please open the google map. Search for Gyanvapi Temple but you will see it as gyanvapi mosque. Touch on/Click on - Suggest edit. Touch on - Change name or other details. write as "Gyanvapi Temple" and mention as "Hindu Temple" (sic)."
A hyperlink for the Google Maps page on Gyanvapi Masjid has been given at the end of the e-mail. The hyperlink worked. The e-mail ends with 'Regards, NHPS'.
DH tried to contact the school authorities to establish the veracity of the e-mail. Mohan Manghnani, chairman of the New Horizon Education Institute (NHEI), didn't respond to phone calls or text messages. School principal Anupama Sethi could not be contacted.
A source in the NHEI disputed the e-mail and claimed that someone had "hacked" the details of parents and other stakeholders from the school's online database. According to the source, the school had lodged a complaint at the Kothanur police station "about four to five days ago" seeking an investigation. When contacted, an officer from the Kothanur police station said that representatives of New Horizon International School had filed a complaint two days ago about an unauthorised WhatsApp group. The officer denied that the complaint was about e-mail hacking.