On December 25, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that the Intelligence Bureau was questioning a number of people who interacted with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY). He further claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are ‘nervous’. Notably, he did not take their names directly but used G2, short for ‘Two Gujaratis’ for the two leaders, in his English tweet but clearly mentioned the names of PM and HM in a Hindi tweet.
IB has been interrogating a number of people who have interacted with @RahulGandhi during #BharatJodoYatra. The spooks have been asking all sorts of questions & also wanting copies of memoranda submitted to him.There’s nothing secretive about the Yatra but clearly G2 are rattled!
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) December 25, 2022
In his tweet, he said, “IB has been interrogating a number of people who have interacted with Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra. The spooks have been asking all sorts of questions and also wanting copies of memoranda submitted to him. There’s nothing secretive about the Yatra, but clearly, G2 are rattled!”
However, this is not the first time a political party in opposition has invoked ‘IB reports’ to hype up their popularity. Apparently, it seems ‘IB reports’ are the epitome of popularity which terrifies PM Modi and HM Shah.
Arvind Kejriwal invented IB reports on elections
Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal had invented a theory of Intelligence Bureau reports that AAP was forming government in Gujarat. On several occasions, he mentioned in a secret report by the IB it was mentioned that his party would win the Gujarat elections. During his press conference in Gujarat, he cited an ‘Intelligence Bureau’ report to make a claim. He further claimed that his party would win the elections by a small margin if the elections were held ‘today’. He urged the people of Gujarat to give a ‘big push’ so that AAP gets a ‘comfortable majority in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections.
IB की रिपोर्ट है- गुजरात में अभी AAP जीत रही है, जीत का अंतर थोड़ा कम है।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) October 2, 2022
गुजरात के लोगों से मेरी अपील: आम आदमी पार्टी के लिए थोड़ा और ज़ोर लगाएँ, कांग्रेस को वोट देकर अपनी वोट ख़राब ना करें, अपना वोट मत बंटने दें।
इस बार सब लोग इकट्ठा होकर AAP को वोट दें। pic.twitter.com/2pWIOdk3gS
However, after AAP lost the elections in the state with over a hundred of its candidates losing deposits on their respective seats, AAP leader Naresh Balyan claimed Kejriwal never talked about reports by Intelligence Bureau. He was talking about reports from “Internal Broadcasting” that gives the assessment of the seats. Notably, there are videos available where Kejriwal is specifically saying Intelligence Bureau that can be checked here, here and here. The tweet by Balyan, despite being fake, was not removed.
Furthermore, Kejriwal played the IB card in 2017 as well during the Punjab elections. He shared an unverified report by a parody account that claimed Kejriwal’s party would get a thumping victory in the state.
OpIndia had reported in 2018 as well that Rahul Gandhi had started to ape Arvind Kejriwal in the political publicity antics and it is likely the ‘IB report’ is one such move making a comeback.
