Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 1, 2024. He invited the PM to the foundation stone laying ceremony of Shri Kalki Dham in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal on February 19, 2024.
Against this backdrop, a letter has gone viral on social media. The letter from the hitherto unknown Congress Volunteer Committee claimed that Acharya Pramod has been suspended from Congress.
“Hon'ble Chairman - CVC Rao Sahab, has suspended Acharya Pramod from the party with immediate effect," it said.
A social media user shared the press release with a caption that reads, “कांग्रेस अपने अंत की और, आज @AcharyaPramodk को सस्पेंड करके कांग्रेस ने यह बता दिया की कांग्रेस में सनातन की बात करने वाले नेता व कार्यकर्ता के लिए कोई जगह नही।” (English translation, “Congress is nearing its end. By suspending @AcharyaPramodk today, Congress has proved that there is no place for leaders and workers who talk about Sanatan.”)
SouthCheck found the claim to be false. The Congress Party has released no such letter.
We contacted a social media in-charge of Congress, who told us that the letter was fake and that no such letter was released from their end.
We further checked a previous letter issued by Congress and compared it with the viral letter. We found the following differences:
The official press releases from the Congress are done by the All India Congress Committee, while the viral letter was published in the name of the All India Congress Volunteers Committee.
We also found a change in the logo.
We also found that all the official press releases are issued through General Secretary, K.C. Venugopal. On the other side, the viral letter was issued by Rao Sahab who claimed to be the Chairman of the Congress Volunteers Committee.
Even the address and phone number provided on the viral letter are different from the official letters released by Congress.
Another social media in charge of Congress said that all press releases are issued on X handle. We found no such press releases there.
We also contacted Rishabh Dubey, the secretary of Acharya Pramod, who said that the viral letter was fake. He said that there is no Congress Volunteer Committee or Rao Sahab in the Congress party. He further said that Congress has not provided any suspension to Acharya Pramod.
Further, we found that Acharya Pramod had tweeted a news clip that said that his meeting with PM Modi fueled political gossip.
However, when we asked Rishabh about the tweet of Acharya Pramod, he said that he did not know whether he would remain in the party or leave. The decision will be made after February 19, 2024.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.
