A post is being shared on Facebook by some users claiming that a Karnataka Congress leader wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi about the ‘Divide Hindus – Unite Muslims’ strategy to be adopted in Karnataka to win the elections. The letter is in the name of Dr M.B. Patil, a Congress leader, and is dated 10th July, 2017. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Claim: M.B. Patil wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi about the strategy of dividing Hindus and uniting Muslims to win the elections.
Fact: M.B. Patil held a press conference and said that the letter in circulation is fake. Also, there are no organizations with the names ‘Global Christian Council’ and ‘World Islamic Organization’. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched for the ‘M.B. Patil’s letter to Sonia’ on Google, it is found that Karnataka Congress has tweeted against the BIP Karnataka’s tweet on the letter being circulated in social media. Karnataka Congress has tweeted that this fake letter was first published in 2018 by Post Card news, which later deleted the article, but it was recirculated by the BJP Karnataka just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the state. Karnataka Congress leader M.B. Patil, also, held a press conference to rebut the false claims made by the BJP Karnataka. Also, if the names of the religious organizations cited in the letter are searched on Google, it can be found that so such organizations exist. The letter was also viral last year, just before the Karnataka Assembly Elections, then AltNews wrote an article to debunk the false claim. So, the letter in the post is fake .
Finally, M.B. Patil’s letter to Sonia Gandhi about the ‘Divide Hindus – Unite Muslims’ strategy in Karnataka is fake.
