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| - Fact Check: No misconduct with President Kovind at Puri
President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife were subject to no harassment at Puri's Jagannath temple as some news reports claimed, three months after the first couple visited the shrine, an India Today Viral Test found.
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India Today Fact Check
Ashok Malik, the press secretary of the president, rebutted reports about the Rashtrapati Bhavan shooting off any such communiqué to Puri's district administration.
In Short
- Fact checking President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife's harassment Puri visit
- No formal complaint with local authorities about the alleged misbehaviour
- A senior priest also confirmed that reports of a formal complaint from the presidential secretariat were false.
President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife were subject to no harassment at Puri's Jagannath temple as some news reports claimed, three months after the first couple visited the shrine, an India Today Viral Test has found.
A roaring controversy erupted over speculations temple attendants misbehaved with president Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind on grounds of caste when they walked into the sanctum during the darshan in March.
News reports also claimed that the presidential secretariat lodged a formal complaint with local authorities about the alleged misbehaviour.
But an investigation by India Today's Viral Test team found the Rashtrapati Bhavan issued no such letter to Puri's district administration, as reported in a section of the media.
Some of those stories quoted the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief administrator, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra (IAS), as alleging that the first couple was "inconvenienced" inside the shrine. The matter, claimed the news reports, was also discussed at a meeting of the temple managing committee.
India Today's Fact Check team spoke to Ashok Malik, the press secretary of the president, for verification.
Malik rebutted reports about the Rashtrapati Bhavan shooting off of any such communiqué to Puri's district administration.
"If anyone claims that any such letter was sent by us, they should produce it," he emphasized. "No such letter has been sent by the president's house and all the reports regarding it are mere speculation."
Malik, however, explained that some servitors did try to breach security protocols to come closer to the president when he was at the temple. But they were stopped, he said.
"There was nothing more to it and the matter ended there," said the presidential spokesman.
A senior priest of the Jagannath temple, Ipshit Prathihari, also insisted that the reports of a formal complaint from the presidential secretariat were false.
Ipshit told our Viral Test team that just after the darshan at the Srimandir, president Kovind attended a function at Puri's Sanskrit Vidyapeetha where he spoke fondly of his association with the Jagannath temple.
Ipshist also shared a video clip of the president at that event.
India Today's Fact Check team then tracked the origin of the false reports to a note in the Odia language, which was circulated as the "minutes of the meeting of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration held on March 20".
The note, which surfaced in Odisha recently, read: "When the president and the first lady proceeded to pray where Lord Jagannathan's idol rests, the servitors did not move aside, and their bodies touched with those of both the dignitaries. The Rashtrapari Bhavan later expressed displeasure at the incident."
But the so-called text had no signatures or the SJTA's name or address printed on it -- at least not visible on the version floating in public domain.
We tried to reach out to Puri's district magistrate, Aravind Agrawal, but he was not available for comment.
Meanwhile, union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who had accompanied the president during his visit to Jagannath in March, on Friday also dismissed reports about the alleged misconduct with the first couple at the temple.
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