CLAIM
A reply to a letter complaining about the treatment of “terrorists held in National Correctional System facilities” claimed to be written by author Arundhati Roy to National Security Advisior Ajit Doval has been doing the rounds on the internet.
The response has been shared by multiple users on various social media platforms applauding Doval for his ‘befitting’ reply to Roy.
The undated alleged response starts with thanking Roy for her “profound concern of treatment of the ISIS and LeT terrorists” and goes on to add that the authorities have decided to place terrorist “Ali Mohammed Ahmed Bin Mahmud in Roy’s personal care” warning her of his “sociopath and extremely violent” behaviour but hoping that she will be sensitive to his needs.
The letter has been shared by multiple users on Facebook and Twitter.
The response also adds that ‘Department of National Defence’ has started a new programme called ‘Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers’ program, or LARK.
The Quint has received multiple queries about this letter.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On looking for the content of the post online, we came across a tweet by a user Rishi Bagee, who had posted the same letter in 2014. Interestingly, Bagee is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has been caught peddling misinformation at several occasions.
We then came across several other posts and found out that the letter had gone viral in earlier in 2016 and 2018 too.
We also found a letter which was posted on a blog called Mediacrooks which said that the letter was written by a “Canadian female libertarian” complaining about the treatment of “captive insurgents” held in Afghanistan, but it also targeted Sagarika Ghose, Kavita Krishnan, Barkha Dutt and Rana Ayyub.
Another version online was undersigned by former US President George W Bush, and another one has been attributed to former Canadian minister of defense Gordon O’Connor.
Fact checking website Snopes debunked this claim in 2005. According to the fact checking website, the reply about a ‘LARK program’ was a satirical piece which had been shared over the years with different names. Snopes also mentioned that the line of thought in the letter is similar to a cartoon published by Jim Huber in 2002.
We also found that the mention of a similar letter is found in a book called The Panama Conspiracy written by William Penn.
AUTHOR ARUNDHATI ROY HAS HERSELF DENIED WRITING ANY SUCH LETTER
As the letter has gone viral time and again, author Arundhati Roy herself had denied being part of any such correspondence.
Speaking to fact checking website AltNews, Roy had said in 2018 that the letter is ‘fake’ and she has never written such a letter or had any interaction with the NSA.
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