Did PM congratulate Supreme Court bench after Ayodhya verdict? Fact Check

A letter claimed to have been written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is circulating on social media following the verdict on Ayodhya case. Dated November 11, 2019, the letter reads:

“Dear Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Let me begin by congratulating you and your bench Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan & Justice S. Abdul Nazeer for your stupendous contribution to Hindu Rashtra. Hindus will always be grateful to you and your team for your compendable and memorable decision, which will make a new history for Hindu Rashtra. I wish you and your family the very best for your future endeavours and once again congratulate you for this remarkable decision. Thank you for the wonderful support at this crucial time.”

The letter has been circulated widely on WhatsApp. Keeping in view the Constitutional obligation of separation of executive and judiciary, the letter raises anybody’s eyebrows as the PM or the PMO never sends such letters.

Fact Check

The Prime Minister of India or the PM Office (PMO) keeps all the official correspondence devoid of any religious bias and the word Hindu Rashtra is never used for India or Bharat, when referring to the country or nation as such. But the language used in the letter is inconceivable. Statements “Hindus will always be grateful to you and your team for your commendable and memorable decision, which will make a new history for Hindu Rashtra,” makes it unbelievable at the first glance.

“Thank you for the wonderful support at this crucial time” is a phrase contrary to the known Separation of Executive and Judiciary  under the Constitution of India pertaining to a verdict where the executive was one of the parties involved.

Secondly, the typos are usually unseen in PMO’s letters. The word ‘commendable’ is misspelt here as ‘compendable,’ hinting at the poor drafting of the letter. Moreover, any communication from the Prime Minister makes it to headlines and this kind of mail would have immediately been in media, which is not the case here as only WhatsApp messages are being circulated.

Finally, the air has been cleared when the Director General of Press Information Bureau released clarification denying the letter as fake. See the PIB DG’s twitter message below:

Conclusion: The claim on WhatsApp is Totally False and our rating is ????? for it.