As the storm rages over ‘dubious’ data firm Cambridge Analytica’s alleged involvement with political parties in India, the Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at BJP saying that the ‘real story vanished’ after BJP spun ‘fake news’.
While attaching a NDTV news report, Rahul Gandhi in a tweet said, “BJP lying factory at work: Journalist set to break big story on how Cambridge Analytica (CA) was paid to infiltrate and sabotage the Congress in 2012.”
BJP rushes Cabinet Minister to lie and spin fake news: Congress worked with CA! Real story vanishes, Gandhi added.
BJP lying factory at work:
Journalist set to break big story on how Cambridge Analytica (CA) was paid to infiltrate and sabotage the Congress in 2012.
BJP rushes Cabinet Minister to lie and spin fake news:Congress worked with CA!
Real story vanishes.https://t.co/zMX7VJAAfa
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 23, 2018
BJP and Congress Party are at loggerheads over Cambridge Analytica’s role in Indian politics and its alleged involvement in the 2014 elections.
On Thursday, Congress called Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad a “minister of lies”, and asked the BJP that if Cambridge Analytica (CA) was involved in stealing data, then why did it take its services and whether it would register an FIR against CA and its Indian arm Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI).
The party also said that Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani followed Cambridge Analtytica on Twitter and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s former IT head, Arvind Gupta — who currently runs government’s biggest portal (mygov.in) —had termed CA a “powerful tool”.
“BJP government has now become a manufacturer of fake news and an epitome of post-truth. The business alliance between BJP-JD(U) and Cambridge Analytica has now been exposed,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had said.
The row between the parties intensified after BJP accused Congress of utilising services of CA.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that the Congress resorted to data theft and data manipulation to win elections and questioned the role of the Cambridge Analytica in the social media management of Congress and party president Rahul Gandhi’s social media accounts.
Also read | Cambridge Analytica handled Rahul Gandhi’s social media campaign: BJP
Cambridge Analytica is under scanner in many countries over allegations of stealing data of Facebook users and alleged use of bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians.