Fake Letter Claims Ajit Doval Praised Uttarakhand Officials For Kumbh Mela
BOOM found that the text of the viral letter is similar to another letter reportedly written by Ajit Doval in the past
A viral letter claiming Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor had appreciated the Uttarakhand government officials for successfully managing and organising the Kumbh Mela is fake.
The letter which is viral on Twitter claims to be written by Doval and carries a signature spelling his name. The letter is addressed to the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Om Prakash wherein Doval compliments him for "handling the situation during Kumbh Mela".
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan tweeted the letter with the caption, "NSA Doval, complimenting the Chief Secy Uttarakhand for organizing the Kumbh Mela & unashamedly asking him to promote the RSS ideology!!
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The letter after praising Prakash for coordinating with all organs of state and central government also reads, "ensuring coordination with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for maintaining peace and implementing COVID-19 protocols." It further praises Om Prakash for using his past experience as Kumbh Mela officer from Dec 2002 to Sept 2003. The letter ends with, "I am confident your efforts would ensure religious atmosphere, help to maintain order and promote Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology in future as well". The letter is dated April 20, 2021 and carries Doval's stamp and signature.
The letter is also viral on Facebook
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FACT CHECK
We found a tweet by wire agency ANI calling the letter the fake and quoting government officials.
We further ran a search for news stories wherein Doval had written letters to other chief secretaries and found a reported letter from Nov 28, 2019, wherein Doval addressed a letter to Rajendra Tiwari, Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh after the Ayodhya verdict. The letter praises Tiwari and uses similar lines as in the recent letter for the Kumbh Mela saying, "I appreciate your pivotal role in maintaining synergy with all organs of the State and Central government and ensuring coordination with police for maintaining peace and communal harmony." It also ends with a similar line about the chief secretary's effort will ensure an "atmosphere of peace and help maintain order, in the future as well"
Below is a comparison between the two letters, one written on Nov 28, 2019 and reported by news outlets and the other on April 20, 2021. Underlined in red sentences are the similar sentences.
The Kumbh Mela letter is similar in text to the letter reported and written to Tiwari with same sentences but the location reading Kumbh Mela instead of Ayodhya. The recent letter also has only the addition of praising RSS.
We then ran a search for Ajit Doval Signature and found another fake letter claiming Doval had written to Rigzin Samphel, commissioner secretary, Leh-Ladakh appreciating his efforts in "ensuring coordination with ITBP for maintain secrecy and to counter/halt China infiltration in the garb of Nepalese".
This letter dated May 28, 2020 was viral on Facebook and contains similar lines as in the letter reported and addrressed by Doval to the UP Chief Secretary except the location reads Ladakh and the incident the India-China standoff.
We also called Om Prakash, Chief Secretary Uttarakhand to get a comment on the letter, the article will be updated when we get a response.
India is seeing a surge in the second wave of COVID-19 cases as the world's largest religious gathering being held in the country. The Kumbh Mela area is spread over several parts of Haridwar, Tehri Garhwal and Dehradun districts of Uttarakhand and has seen over 2000 COVID-19 positive cases with daily rises in those attending, including the death of one religious seer of the disease.
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