Archives for April 2019

Facebook Inc said on Monday it was removing 687 pages and accounts linked to India’s main opposition Congress party, just days before voting begins in a general election, because of “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” on the social media platform.

The announcement marks a rare action from Facebook against a prominent political party in a country where it has more than 300 million users, the highest in the world. Image for representation.

Facebook Inc said on Monday it was removing 687 pages and accounts linked to India’s main opposition Congress party, just days before voting begins in a general election, because of “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” on the social media platform.

The announcement marks a rare action from Facebook against a prominent political party in a country where it has more than 300 million users, the highest in the world.

Facebook said its investigation found that individuals used fake accounts and joined various groups to disseminate their content and increase engagement. Their posts included local news and criticism of political opponents such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Facebook said.

“While the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that it was connected to individuals associated with an INC (Indian National Congress) IT Cell,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, said in a statement.

Gleicher added that Facebook was removing accounts based on their behaviour, not the content they posted.

India’s staggered election, scheduled to begin on April 11, will end on May 19.

Two of the samples shared by Facebook were of posts that criticized Modi’s initiatives and called for supporting the Congress party and its president, Rahul Gandhi.

The social media giant also said it was removing 103 pages, groups and accounts, also for inauthentic behaviour, as part of a network which originated in Pakistan and was linked to employees of the Inter-Service Public Relations department of the Pakistani military.

Facebook has faced increasing pressure from authorities around the world, including the Indian government, to ensure its platform is not abused for political gains or to spread misinformation, especially ahead of elections.

Facebook has toughened up its rules governing political advertisements in India and many other countries to increase transparency.

Last week, Facebook removed a social media network in the Philippines and took the unusual step of linking it to a businessman who said he had managed the president’s online election campaign in 2016. It has taken similar actions recently against accounts in Russia and Iran.

Separately, Facebook said it had also removed another 227 pages and 94 accounts in India for violating its policies against spam and misrepresentation.

Agencies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday revived his attack on the Congress-NCP alliance as well as Congress president Rahul Gandhi at a rally in Wardha in Maharashtra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election rally, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, in Wardha, Monday, April 01, 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted Congress over coining the term “Hindu Terrorism” without naming the Samjhauta Express blast case. Modi said Congress has insulted the peaceful Hindu community by labelling them as terrorists and will not be forgiven for that. He blamed the opposition party (Congress) for vote bank politics. He was addressing a public rally at Swabhimani Maidan of Wardha district of Vidarbha region while kicking off the BJP’s election campaign in Maharashtra.

With the speech, PM Modi has also made it clear that the party will play its old saffron card along with nationalism for election campaign, 2019.

“The term Hindu Terrorism was coined by Sushil Kumar Shinde, the then home minister. But a recent court verdict has made it clear that Congress insulted the country. It insulted the peaceful Hindu community that believes the world as one family. Those (Hindu community) who were blamed then have now woken up and Congress will be punished for this act,” Modi said this without mentioning the Samjhauta Express blast case verdict in which a local court acquitted RSS pracharak Swami Aseemanand and other three accused.Video Player is loading.

He then took potshots against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his decision to contest from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala apart from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi seat.

“This is the reason he (Rahul Gandhi) didn’t dare to contest from a seat where we (Hindu) are in majority but chose to contest from a seat (Wayanad) where we are in minority,” he added.

Modi also said NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s decision to not contest this Lok Sabha election shows that he is aware of the ground reality. “His (Sharad Pawar) nephew (Ajit Pawar) is making plans to hijack the party and the family is currently facing rift over seat distribution,” the Prime Minister said.

This was the first political rally jointly held by the two parties since announcing a pre-poll alliance in 2018.

Coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) led by their respective party heads, Rahul Gandhi and HD Deve Gowda, shared the stage at a rally in Bengaluru in an attempt to send a message of unity in their efforts to upstage the BJP government at the Centre.

The ‘Parivartana Samavesha’ rally held in the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre on Tumakuru Road in the northern part of the city, was the first political rally jointly held by the two parties since announcing a pre-poll alliance in 2018.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi chose the occasion to remind his party workers that they should support JD(S) candidates and also stated that he expected the JD(S) to support his party. “I want to tell the Congress workers and leaders that they must support the JDS candidates wherever they are contesting and also expect the same from JD(S) workers. The aim of our two parties is to defeat Narendra Modi and BJP”, he said at the start of his address. 

Rahul’s speech in Hindi was translated to Kannada by Congress leader BL Shankar. His statement comes at a time when reports of disagreements between party workers of traditional rivals Congress and JD(S) have emerged from places like Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan, Tumakuru and Udupi. The party has warned its cadre to work in tandem with the JD(S) and ensure that the alliance wins the maximum number of seats in Karnataka.

Rahul also highlighted the Congress’ proposed minimum income scheme and claimed that it was the party’s ‘surgical strike on the poor’. “Modi said he’d give Rs 15 lakh to everybody. But I’ll tell you the truth. The government cannot put Rs 15 lakh in everybody’s accounts. But it can put Rs 72000 into the accounts of the poorest 20%. In five years, we will put Rs 3.6 lakh crore in the accounts of the poor. This is our surgical strike on poverty. 25 crore people will benefit and five crore families will get money deposited in the account”, he added.

JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda meanwhile said that regional leaders from across the country had come together to fight PM Modi. “For the first time in the country, all regional leaders had come together on May 23, 2018, when the coalition government was formed in Karnataka. This was to prove that this country is not a Hindu Rashtra as per the RSS vision,” he said. 

As per the pre-poll alliance struck between the two parties, Congress is fielding candidates in 21 constituencies while the JD(S) is fielding candidates in seven constituencies. There are a total of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. The JD(S) surrendered the Bengaluru (North) seat to the Congress after the party was not able to finalise a candidate. Congress leader Pramod Madhwaraj meanwhile is contesting on a JD(S) ticket from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru.

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy also spoke on the occasion. He defended the coalition government’s flagship farm loan waiver scheme. “We decided to waive loans worth Rs 45,000 crore. But Modi claimed that this was a lollypop scheme and that it had not benefited anybody, but I want to tell you that 44 lakh people are benefiting,” he said. 

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Dinesh Gundu Rao and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also spoke at the rally which was attended by thousands of Congress and JD(S) supporters. All top leaders of the Congress and JD(S) were present at the rally which marks the beginning of the coalition’s campaign. 

Agencies

IAS officer Priyanka Mary Francis, who was posted as the Director of Tourism is Hassan’s new Deputy Commissioner.

The Election Commission (EC) has shunted out Hassan Deputy Commissioner Akram Pasha following a complaint from Hassan legislator Preetham Gowda (BJP) who accused him of working in a partisan manner, an official said on Sunday.

“On the EC’s directive, the state government has replaced Pasha with IAS officer Priyanka Mary Francis as Hassan’s new Deputy Commissioner to ensure a free and fair vote on April 18,” poll official Surya Sen told IANS..

“Preetham Gowda had complained to us that Pasha was trying to obstruct the BJP nominee from campaigning and was influencing his Vokkaliga community to vote for JD(S) candidate Prajwal Revanna,” said Sen.

A BJP spokesman told media Pasha was favouring ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) candidate Prajwal in the high-profile constituency.

Prajwal is the grandson of JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda and son of Gowda’s second son and state Public Works Department Minister H.D. Revanna, elder brother of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.

Gowda, a six-time MP from Hassan since 1991, opted to contest from Tumkur, to enable Prajwal enter the fray from the JD(S) bastion against BJP candidate A. Manju.

Deve Gowda’s other grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy is JD(S) candidate from Mandya against actress Sumalatha Ambareesh who is contesting as Independent, supported by the BJP.

Nikhil is the son of Kumaraswamy and an upcoming actor in the Kannada film industry, which is supporting Sumalatha, whose husband M.H. Ambareesh was also an actor.

A Mandya native, Ambareesh passed away at 66 on November 24. 2018 in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru, Apr 1 : After delaying for two weeks, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar today accepted the resignation of the MLA Dr Umesh Jadhav.
According to official sources, the Speaker has accepted the resignation of Dr Jadhav, Who was elected to the Assembly in the 2018 Elections from Chincholi constitutency in Kalaburagi District.
After submitting his resignation to the MLA post, Dr Jadhav joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is contesting for Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat on BJP ticket against Congress strongman Mallikarjuna Kharge.
The resignation of Dr Jadhav was accepted, after the Speaker had a one-on-one meeting with the Congress MLA, last week.
While accepting the resignation of Dr Jadhav, the Speaker dismissed a petition submitted by a voter from Chincholi Assembly segment demanding him not to accept the resignation, as they had elected him for a full five year term.
With the acceptance of the resignation of Dr Jadhav, the strength of the Congress in the 225-member house was reduced to 78 followed by the BJP 105, the JD(S) 38 and Two Independents.