HYDERABAD: A purported letter of Home Minister Amit Shah praising suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma and calling her an icon is viral on social media
In the letter, it is claimed that he requested Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to provide Sharma with Z category security
A Z category is India's third-highest degree of security. It entails security cover by police or ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) or CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel and one escort car.
The letter is being shared against the backdrop of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal's comments against the Prophet Mohammad that has led to several Arab countries protesting against the Indian government.
FACT CHECK:
NewsMeter did not find any such letter being written by Home Minister Amit Shah to Uttarakhand Chief Minister. No media outlet has reported on such a letter. If indeed, Shah had praised Nupur Sharma by calling her an icon to promote RSS ideology and requested Z security it would have been reported by credible media outlets. The letter is a fake. Moreover, the letter has grammatical errors, a rare occurrence in official communications.
A similar fake letter was viral last year claiming that Union Home Minister Amit Shah appreciated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for successfully handling the COVID-19 situation in his state. Upon close observation, it was noted that both the letters had the numerical 'HMP no - 28647021' mentioned. This indicates that the old fake letter has been edited and shared as another letter.
Furthermore, Press Information Bureau also called the viral letter fake. It said no such letter had been issued by the Home Minister.