On September 5, Saurav Das, the co-convener of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), shared a photo on X that attributed a quote to BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia, under the label of ‘NBT’, which presumably referred to the news outlet, NavBharat Times.
It was claimed that Bhatia had said, “The youth named Swatantra Bhardwaj is a ‘Dimaagi Naxal’, he is filled with casteist venom, and he has nothing to do with the BJP government.”
The post was later deleted by Das, but the archived version can be accessed here.
Several other X users, like Nimo Yadav (@DrNimoYadav), Vaibhav Shukla (@vaibhaw_g), and Gen-Z of India (@GenZ_of_India_) amplified the viral quote. Archives: 1, 2, 3
Click to view slideshow.Bhardwaj, a Hindutva hardliner, recently created an uproar after a clip from a podcast went viral. In it, he boasted about assaulting Sanjay Kumar, father of CJP protester Nishu Azad, during the Jantar Mantar protest, and asserted that he faced no action because of his political connections, naming Kapil Mishra and Chirag Paswan. He now faces criminal charges under Sections 115(2), 126(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions of the POCSO Act and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, with an attempt-to-murder charge also invoked in the case. On September 7, he was sent to 14-day judicial remand.
Fact Check
To verify the authenticity of the viral quote attributed to Gaurav Bhatia, we ran relevant keyword searches to see if any verified news outlet reported on it, but could find none.
However, we found this X post, published by Navbharat Times on September 5, which clarifies that “misleading messages are being spread” through these “fake posts.”
पिछले कुछ दिनों से सोशल मीडिया पर NBT के नाम से कई पोस्ट वायरल हो रही हैं और उन फ़र्ज़ी पोस्ट के जरिये भ्रामक संदेश फैलाए जा रहे हैं। NBT की किसी भी खबर की सत्यता जांचने के लिए केवल NBT के आधिकारिक सोशल मीडिया हैंडल पर ही भरोसा करें। #FactCheck #NBT #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/rA9pC6iHS3
— NBT Hindi News (@NavbharatTimes) September 5, 2026
Thereafter, we found that Gaurav Bhatia had also categorically debunked the viral quote attributed to him by Saurav Das, in an X post. He gave the CJP leader an ultimatum of 24 hours to apologise for spreading the viral misquote, warning that he would file an FIR against him otherwise.
It took only 83 minutes for the post to be deleted. Unqualified apology still remains. Tomorrow will be a day of FIR if no unqualified apology is tendered. Can’t spread propaganda and then just delete and run. https://t.co/oTXLR6ZwKe
— Gaurav Bhatia गौरव भाटिया 🇮🇳 (@gauravbhatiabjp) September 5, 2026
Das himself shared a post stating that the quote-graphic was AI-generated.
To sum up, the viral quote attributed to BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia about Swatantra Bhardwaj being a ‘Dimaagi Naxal’ is entirely fabricated. Bhatia had made no such statement on the Hindutva propagandist who is now in jail facing multiple criminal charges including under POCSO Act.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.