The Congress has demanded a fair investigation, including forensic examination of documents being produced by the BJP, to bust a Covid “toolkit” that the Opposition party has claimed was prepared by merging forged and false papers with pilfered research material.
The Congress said the BJP was resorting to mud-slinging to divert attention from the “catastrophic consequences of the pandemic mismanagement”.
The Congress has lodged police complaints accusing the BJP of forging the Opposition party’s research wing letterhead and adding fabricated materials to a genuine document on the Central Vista project to create the impression that the Congress had prepared a toolkit to malign the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over alleged mismanagement of the pandemic.
The fact-checking website AltNews also examined the Congress document, titled Central Vista Redevelopment — Vanity Project Amidst the Pandemic, and the purported toolkit and found distinct differences between the letterheads, letters, fonts and alignments. Going into details, AltNews has pointed out that the font of the alphabet “M” for the letter “May” used in the toolkit does not match the one on the Vista document.
Also, the page numbers on the Vista document use Roman numerals while those on the toolkit use English numbers.
AltNews concluded that the AICC research department letterhead had been tampered with in the toolkit document.
Moreover, the website pointed out, the BJP had produced screenshots of the purported toolkit, not the original document, raising questions on authenticity.
The crux of the Congress’s allegation, which has been backed by research by AltNews, is that four pages from the genuine six-page Central Vista document had been used, probably to create an impression of authenticity, and another four pages of forged documents had been added to prepare the toolkit the BJP was tom-tomming.
The allegation is that the portion of the “toolkit” that tells Congress workers, volunteers and supporters to use the term “super spreader Kumbh”, “not comment on Eid gatherings”, respond to Covid SOS messages “only if a person tags the IYC handle”, “use dramatic pictures of funerals and dead bodies which is already being done by foreign media” is false. This portion also urges social media volunteers to call the new Covid variant pummelling India the “Modi strain”.
The Congress’s Central Vista document, portions of which have been incorporated in the toolkit, is a background note on policy and the issues facing the nation and had been circulated internally. The Congress has alleged that this document was obtained illegally by the BJP to prepare the fake toolkit.
There is nothing wrong in parties creating research materials for their foot soldiers to gain comprehensive knowledge on topics and prepare talking points.
The Congress has named BJP national president J.P. Nadda, Union minister Smriti Irani, party spokesperson Sambit Patra and general secretary in charge of organisation B.L. Santosh, among others, in its police complaints in Delhi and Jharkhand, accusing them of trying to tarnish the Opposition party and create social disharmony.
On Wednesday, Patra, who had started off the controversy on Tuesday by making the toolkit claim at a news conference, made public what he claimed was “metadata” of the alleged toolkit. The metadata, or a set of data that describes and gives information about other data, had the name of the author of the document — Saumya Varma, who works for the Congress’s research department.
The “metadata” is that of the Central Vista portion of the toolkit and would have the footprints of the creator, in this case Verma from the research wing of the Congress.
The Congress wondered why Delhi police were not registering an FIR on the basis of its complaint. The Congress has decided to pursue the matter with vigour after Wednesday’s fresh attempt to allegedly spread falsehood.
Congress research department head Rajeev Gowda told The Telegraph that the party document on Central Vista — the project to construct a new Parliament building and residences for the Prime Minister and other VIPs — had been pilfered and used to prepare the “toolkit”.
The Vista document was by no means intended to malign anybody but a regular research paper on how the government was pushing ahead with a Rs 20,000-crore vanity project amid a devastating pandemic, the Congress maintains.
“We said yesterday that the Central Vista document is genuine, prepared by us as background paper. That is a document based on facts. The BJP somehow got that document. They used that as a model to fraudulently create a document on Covid, which they released yesterday. They play cynical games. Today, Sambit Patra used the metadata of our genuine document to attribute it to the fake document,” Gowda said.
“They are trying to create confusion over the real document with the fake paper they created. What is needed now is a forensic examination of all the documents. What is the point of making wild allegations and spreading lies? Let there be a fair investigation.”
Gowda, a former IIM professor, lamented that Varma, the Congress research department employee, had been trolled so badly that she had to disable her social media accounts.
“If the BJP is caught forging documents, they will unleash trolls and mount a massive propaganda to hide their misdeeds,” Gowda said.
Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala objected to the delay in the registration of an FIR on the party’s complaint with Delhi police, alleging that the force was trying to save the BJP leaders.
“Whatever they do, Patra, and probably Nadda too, will have to go to jail for this forgery,” he said.
Surjewala asserted that an elaborate drama had been enacted to divert people’s attention from the real issues.
“It is a classic Narendra Modi diversionary ploy. They are desperate to divert attention from the catastrophic consequences of the Covid mismanagement, the horrendous sight of thousands of bodies strewn on the riverside in Uttar Pradesh, people dying because of lack of oxygen and medicines being sold in the black market. They have quietly increased the prices of fertilisers to break the backbone of farmers. These are the real issues they want to escape from,” the Congress’s chief spokesperson said.
Never in the history of independent India had any government increased the prices of fertilisers so steeply, Surjewala said.
“There was already an additional burden of Rs 15,000 per hectare annually because of a rise in input costs. Now the Modi government has quietly raised the price of a 50kg bag of DAP fertiliser from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,900. A Rs 700 jump per bag has never happened. Prices of all other fertilisers have been increased,” he said.
“Is there a conspiracy to destroy the farmers, turn them into slaves? This is a loot of Rs 20,000 crore annually. Controversies like the toolkit are required to avoid these critical questions.”
The Congress has decided to observe the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21 by distributing relief materials, food and medicines among Covid patients and their relatives at hospitals, arranging ambulances for funerals and creating awareness on wearing masks. All MLAs and MLCs have been asked to make arrangements for free service by at least two ambulances in their respective areas.