A cropped news report about a letter written by Naorem Mohen, General Secretary of the Manipur Patriotic Party to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blaming the Congress party for the violence in Manipur is being shared with a false claim that the letter was written by the president of the Manipur Congress.
BOOM found that the original report talks about Manipur Patriotic Party’s general secretary Naorem Mohen, not a Congress leader as claimed.
Manipur has been rocked by ethnic violence between the Kuki and Meitei communities since early May this year. At least 142 people have died since the violence broke out with most deaths recorded in Imphal West, Imphal East and Churachandpur districts, the state government told the Supreme Court in a report according to the Indian Express.
The 1.40-minute video is being shared with the caption, "Manipur Congress President has written an open letter to Rahul Gandhi saying that Congress is responsible for the current problem by infiltrating Rohingyas & Bangladeshi for its vote bank. Congress will destroy the country for personal gains".
In the news report the ticker states, 'Manipur Regional Party' which contradicts the claim that Manipur Congress president wrote the letter.
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Fact Check
BOOM first performed a keyword search and found India Today's news bulletin that published on June 26, 2023. We noticed that the title of the video is, "Manipur Regional Party Leader Blames Cong For Violence, Says Cong Votebank Politics Behind Crisis".
The report mentioned that a Manipur regional party leader named Naorem Mohen, in an open letter, blamed the Congress for the violence that happened and claimed that the Rahul Gandhi-led party encouraged illegal immigration in the state.
Taking a cue, we ran a keyword search related to 'Rahul Gandi Open Letter Manipur' and found a tweet by Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell chief Amit Malviya who tweeted a report published by India Today NE on June 24, 2023.
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The India Today NE report mentioned the leader who wrote the letter to Gandhi as the Manipur Patriotic Party’s general secretary Naorem Mohen.
The article quoted Mohen's letter as saying, "Rahul ji, I appreciate your concern for the present violent crisis in Manipur. However, you’ve wrongly described it as a fight between two communities. I take this opportunity to remind you that the present violent crisis in Manipur is the outcome of the continuation of the British Policy of Meitei containment by the Indian National Congress Party by encouraging illegal immigration from Myanmar and Bangladesh and converting them into a vote bank for your party, otherwise known as Congress."
We then noticed that Mohen runs two Twitter handles, "@NaoremMohenBJP" and "@laimacha". Mohen, in 2015, urged his followers to follow his then-created account "@NaoremMohenBJP" from which he shared various tweets in support of the BJP.
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Taking a cue, a keyword search related to Mohan and his connections with the BJP led us to a report published by The Hindu on December 04, 2013.
The report states, "The BJP IT cell convenor in Manipur, Naorem Mohen, tweeted on Tuesday evening: “Have you call/sms/email your friends to vote for BJP? I have done, don’t delay #WeWantDr.Sahab”. A smiling picture of BJP chief ministerial candidate Dr. Harsh Vardhan made for the backdrop of Mr. Mohen’s Twitter page, calling for support for a “clean and honest government”."
We also found Naorem Mohen's profile on LinkedIn where Mohen mentioned that he worked as the convenor of the BJP Manipur's IT cell from August 2013 to October 2014.
While talking about his work experience, Mohen wrote that he used to promote the BJP and manage the social media handles of the party. As per his LinkedIn profile, Mohen ran a social initiative for PM Narendra Modi named 'MODified Northeast India' in May 2014.
