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| - Fact Check: Fake letter claims PM Modi wants Giriraj Singh as chief minister of Bihar
The viral letter in question has several glaring discrepancies which indicate that it is not from the Prime Minister's office.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral letter is fake. The signature, language, style and other indicators suggest that the letter was not written by PM Modi.
Is Union minister Giriraj Singh PM Modi’s choice as the chief minister of Bihar? Singh is the BJP MP from Begusarai and known to be a hardliner in party circles.
A letter dated November 5, purportedly written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to BJP president JP Nadda is circulating on social media, in which the former expresses willingness to make Singh the Bihar CM.
The letter is mostly circulating on WhatsApp. Several Twitter users have also posted the viral letter along with a caption that says, “Even before the Bihar election results, PM Modi has selected the CM of #Bihar , Giriraj Singh would be next CM of Bihar.”
Part of the letter reads, “I am happy to inform you that Bharatiya Janata Party is
the only party who follow democratic norms, my vote for Shri Giriraj Singh as Chief Minister Bihar out of three candidates. Shri Giriraj Singh contribution to accomplish the mile stone of Ram Mandir is extra ordinary and commendable”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the letter to be fake. The signature, language, style and other indicators suggest that it was not written by PM Modi.
The archived versions of the posts are saved here, here and here.
The viral letter in question has several glaring discrepancies which indicate that it is not from the Prime Minister’s office. The language, emblem colour, style and signature of PM Modi do not match with original letters written by him earlier.
Language
The letter is full of grammatical errors, highly unlikely to be one released from the PMO. For example, “milestone” and extraordinary” are single words, but in the letter, they have been used as two separate words.
Style and emblem
Comparing one of PM Modi’s earlier letters written to Mahendra Singh Dhoni with the viral one, we found the style of both the letters is different. The dateline in the original letter is also mentioned in Hindi, but in the viral letter, it is only in English.
The emblem colour in the letter written to Dhoni is golden, whereas the viral letter has a black-and-white emblem.
Viral letter
PM’s original letter
Signature
Comparing PM Modi’s original signature with the one in the viral letter, we can notice differences here too. The ‘N’ in the viral letter has curves, unlike the original signature.
The elliptical loop around ‘N’ is bold and strong in the original signature, and quite hesitant in the viral one. The two dots at the end of PM Modi’s signature in the letter written to Dhoni are horizontal and on the same line. But in the viral signature, the dots are uneven.
Viral letter
PM’s original letter
Moreover, there are no credible news reports which suggest PM Modi has endorsed Giriraj Singh as Bihar chief minister. Earlier too, fact-checkers had debunked a fake latter that had gone viral in the PM’s name.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the viral letter claiming PM Modi has endorsed Giriraj Singh as the CM of Bihar even before election results were declared is fake.
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