On January 18, Congress media panellist Surendra Rajput shared a letter allegedly written by a BJP leader. The letter quotes Rajesh Bhatia of BJP Delhi talking about dispersing protesting farmers and putting a stop to the farmers’ Tractor Rally to be held on Republic Day. Although the tweet has now been deleted, an archived version can be found here.

Congress leader Alka Lamba also shared the image, questioning whether the letter suggesting BJP’s intent of violence against protesting farmers is genuine.

Several people compared the letter to Kapil Mishra’s incendiary speech before the Delhi riots.

Fake letter

A reverse-image search also took us to a report by The Ocean News Point published in September 2018 which carries the news o Ashok Goyal given the post of the chief of the media department of BJP Delhi. The report includes a scanned copy of BJP Delhi letterhead with the signature of Rajesh Bhatia, then general secretary of BJP state unit. This signature matches the one on the viral letter. His designation is also the same in both even though Bhatia is no longer BJP Delhi general secretary.

The similarities have been highlighted below.

A closer further reveals that the letter has been edited. The text on the original letter is quite clear whereas the same appears blurred in the edited letter.

BJP Delhi leader Rajesh Bhatia clarified that the viral letter is fake. He said that some miscreants took a BJP letterhead and forged his signature on a letter with objectionable language toward the protesting farmers. He condemned the disinformation and wrote that he respects his farmer brothers and sisters.

In the above complaint, Bhatia has described himself as former BJP general secretary and in-charge of the Delhi unit. He also tweeted a news report about the fake letter.

A fake letter was therefore posted online calling for forceful disbanding of the farmer protests. It was falsely attributed to BJP leader Rajesh Bhatia.

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About the Author

She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.