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 government has already received flak for allowing the Kumbh Mela during the pandemic. Huge crowds were witnessed at the event and many attendees tested positive for coronavirus. 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.
Amid this, an image of a letter apparently signed by Ajit Doval has gone viral. In the letter addressed to Uttarakhand chief secretary Om Prakash, the NSA reportedly lauded government officials for successfully organising the Kumbh Mela this year.
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!!”
Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the NSA has not written any such letter to Om Prakash. The government has called it “fake”. The Uttarakhand CS also confirmed that he has not received any such letter from Doval on Kumbh Mela.
After conducting a reverse image search, an article was retrieved by The Economic Times that had published a PTI report in December 2019. NSA Ajit Doval had then appreciated the efforts of the Uttar Pradesh government in maintaining peace and communal harmony after the verdict pronounced in the Ayodhya case.
The article mentioned that the letter was addressed to UP Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari and mentioned, “I compliment you for your commendable efforts in handling the situation in Uttar Pradesh following the Ayodhya verdict. I appreciate your pivotal role in maintaining synergy with all the organs of the state and central government and ensuring coordination with the police for maintaining peace and communal harmony.”
Thus, on comparing the viral letter with the 2019 one, it was found that a huge chunk of the text had been lifted from the latter and used in the viral one.
The viral letter made changes, such as Ayodhya verdict was replaced by Kumbh Mela. A line mentioning RSS context was added in the viral one. Earlier in May 2020, another letter was viral, with the claim that the National Security Advisor wrote a letter congratulating Commissioner Secretary, Ladakh for handling of the border situation. The letter carried a similar text as the viral one on Kumbh Mela and was then called out by PIB’s fact-checking arm.
