Amid allegations of misuse of personal data for political purposes by social media giant Facebook, the BJP on Wednesday hit out at Congress accusing it of compromising national security by reportedly roping in political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) to run its 2019 election campaign.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that CA had been found involved in data manipulation and warned that any attempt to misuse social media to influence India’s electoral process would not be tolerated and the government would take necessary legal action.

“Any covert or overt attempt to misuse social media including Facebook to influence India’s electoral process through undesirable means will neither be tolerated, nor permitted,” Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference.

He said that CA — the agency which hired by the Congress to run its 2019 campaign — is accused of using bribes, sex workers to entrap politicians and stealing data from Facebook.

“Abuse of social media including Facebook cannot be allowed to impact the fairness of elections. In the wake of recent data theft from Facebook, let my stern warning be heard across the Atlantic, far away in California,” the senior BJP leader said.

Accusing Congress of depending upon data manipulation and theft to win votes, Prasad
also asked the Congress whether it depends on data theft, and found manipulation ability the sole criteria to hire CA.

“These days, there is lot of news about CA and how it has been involved in data theft, psychometric analysis, data manipulation and subversion of democratic processes. Can the Congress deny that,” he asked.

Citing media reports, the BJP leader also asked the Congress to clarify whether now-sacked CA CEO Alexender Nix has met several opposition leaders to design the the UPA’s electoral strategy for the next Lok Sabha elections.

“How many times did Rahul Gandhi and Nix meet and what did they discuss? What is the CA’s role in Rahul Gandhi’s social media presence,” he asked.

“It is a matter of grave concern for crores of online users in India that online data and browsing patterns are being used for such means. I want to specifically warn the Congress that the nation will not tolerate any kind of data theft or manipulation in India,” he said.

The Minister also sought to know from the “Grand Old Party” as to how much stolen data from CA was in posession of the Congress and how much data of Indian users had been handed over to the firm by the party.

Alleging that CA had been found using illegal means of data manipulation to subvert the democratic process in Kenya, Prasad said that the Congress had been aligning with such forces to divide the society to win elections.

“We have seen this in Gujarat. We are seeing what they are doing in Karnataka,” he said.

Prasad said the government was in touch with the US Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to assess the privacy violations of Indian users.

“We will also summon the company and Facebook to assess the data theft of Indian users and will take strictest action,” he warned.

(IANS)

The move of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to recast the surrender policy for Pakistan-backed terrorists and dole out a sum of Rs 6 lakh to each one of them at the time of surrender has been blocked by the BJP, a coalition partner in the PDP-led government in Jammu and Kashmir. The amount of Rs 6 lakh proposed for surrendered terrorists was Rs 1 lakh more than the amount of Rs 5 lakh being given as relief to kin of those killed by terrorists or in shelling by Pakistan Army.
The proposal to recast the existing surrender policy was piloted by Mehbooba in a meeting of the state cabinet held here on Tuesday evening. However, sensing further erosion of its political base in the Jammu division if the proposal was allowed to be passed, BJP ministers in the cabinet put their foot down and did not let Mehbooba have her way on the contentious issue.

Mehbooba had in the new policy proposed a substantial jump of Rs 4.5 lakh over the policy of 2004 in which the amount was Rs 1.5 lakh. The financial benefits for terrorists were withdrawn in the surrender policy recast in 2010 when the National Conference-Congress coalition government headed by Omar Abdullah was in power.
Mehbooba not only proposed to enhance the one time financial bonanza, but also substantially increase the incentives for the weapons laid down by terrorists during the surrender. The incentive for surrendering a sniper rifle was Rs 25,000 in the policy of 2004, which has been proposed to be increased to Rs 1 lakh. The incentive for AK-rifle has been proposed to be enhanced to Rs 50,000 from the earlier Rs 15,000.
The current strategy of terrorists has been to snatch rifles from state police personnel and use them for targeting the security forces. The surrender policy announced in 2004 created a countrywide controversy when it was alleged that the state government was providing undue financial benefits to terrorists instead of assisting the unemployed youth.
Observers feel the PDP, which was facing political crisis in the Kashmir valley, has in a way tried to thrown open the coffers to please those engaged in terrorism. It was proposed to hike the incentive for each surrendered bullet to Rs 100 from the earlier amount of Rs 3 per bullet.
The incentive for each surrendered landmine was proposed to be increased to Rs 20,000 from the earlier Rs 3,000. Similarly, the terrorists would get a sum of Rs 10,000 for each surrendered Improvised Explosive Device (IED) against the earlier Rs 1,000.
Mehbooba had reportedly proposed that the cash incentive of Rs 6 lakh would be kept in the bank as fixed deposit for 10 years and the surrendered terrorist would get a monthly interest of Rs 4,000 or so till maturity of the FD that could be encashed if the CID declared his good conduct. Besides, several other incentives, including skill training, were also proposed for surrendered terrorists.
The surrender policy of 2010 had withdrawn all special incentives but offered that those who had gone to POK or Pakistan between January 1, 1989, and December 31, 2009, and their dependents who had a change of heart and were willing to return would be eligible for resettlement under the policy.

(IANS)

Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducted raid on six government officials- Gopalakrishna, joint director, Davangere-Harihara Development Authority; Thippeswamy, assistant commissioner, Tumakuru sub-division; Sripathi Doddalingannavar, vigilance officer, NEKRTC, Kalaburagi and Srikeerti Jain, revenue inspector, Kalasa hobli, Chikkamagaluru, Vijaya Kumar M Shetty, assistant executive Engineer, Karanja Canal Project, Humnabad, Bidar; Kiran Subbarao Bhat, assistant executive engineer, Belgaum City Corporation.

The IT raid was conducted on 24 premises in Davangere, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Belagavi, Bengaluru, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Dharwad and Chikkamagaluru areas. A senior police official said that the search is still on. The details on the confiscated assets will be known in a day or two.

The Congress today asked the BJP to make its stand clear on the Karnataka Cabinet’s decision to recommend religious minority status to Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat communities, after the saffron party accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of “playing with fire” for vote bank politics. Congress’s communications incharge Randeep Surjewala said the issue should not be linked with elections or the political process. “It is inappropriate to link the decision of Karnataka government viz-a-viz declaration of Lingayat Samaj as a minority community to the political processes,” he told reporters.

Surjewala asked BJP chief Amit Shah and the party’s state unit president B S Yeddyurappa to clarify whether they are in favour of the decision or against it. “You need to clarify and come out clearly. Do not hunt with the hare. That is why we have clearly said the sinister propaganda of BJP on this issue is condemnable. “For, they do not want to speak for the fear of annoying vote bank, yet they are opposing the demand of Lingayat samaj. It is condemnable and we dare Shri B S Yeddyuruppa and Shri Amit Shah to clarify their position in the open,” he said.

Surjewala said the Karnataka government had followed the due process before taking the decision. Referring to the Jain community, which was recognized as a religious minority a few years ago, he said Lingayats should also be accorded such status. He said the previous UPA Congress government had got the demand of the community examined and due process was followed by the Siddaramaiah dispensation. After examining historical and other evidences, the UPA government had come to a conclusion that the Jain community was a religious minority despite objections by the Agrawal community, which said they were part of them.

Lingayats and Veerashaivas constitute an estimated 17 per cent of the state’s population, and are considered the BJP’s traditional vote base in Congress-ruled Karnataka, which is likely to go to polls in April-May. The Cabinet decision was slammed by the BJP, which accused Siddaramaiah of “playing with fire” for vote bank politics and carrying on with the “divide and rule” policy.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The CBI today moved the Delhi High Court challenging a special court order acquitting former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. The matter was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta.

The court allowed it to be listed for hearing tomorrow. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had yesterday moved the high court against the acquittal of Raja, Kanimozhi and others in a money laundering case arising out of the 2G scam. The special court had on December 21 last year acquitted Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the special court had acquitted 17 others, including DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of STPL, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd., film producer Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Director of Kalaignar TV Sharad Kumar in the ED case. The ED, in its charge sheet, had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.

On the same day, the trial court had acquitted Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others, including former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd. MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) — Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, in the CBI’s 2G case.

The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the top court on February 2, 2012. Special Judge O P Saini had held that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove the charges.

The special court, which was set up on March 14, 2011, for hearing 2G cases exclusively, had also acquitted Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and six others in a separate case arising out of the 2G scam probe. The first case, prosecuted by the CBI, had 17 accused, while the second matter, pursued by the ED, had 19 accused. The third one had eight accused including Essar promoters.

In the CBI case, Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others were tried under provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribes.

(PTI)

Chandigarh: Harjit Masih, the lone survivor who had managed to flee from ISIS captivity in Iraq in June 2014 following his abduction along with 39 other Indians there, today said he had been maintaining for the last three years that all others had been killed.

“I had been saying for the last three years that all 39 Indians had been killed (by ISIS militants),” Masih today said. “I had spoken the truth,” asserted Masih, resident of village Kala Afghana in Gurdaspur district of Punjab.

Masih was one of the 40 Indian workers abducted by ISIS militant outfit. His statement came after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today informed the Parliament that all the 39 Indian workers, abducted by ISIS in Iraq nearly three years ago, were killed and their bodies have been recovered.

Masih said they were killed in front of my eyes and I had been saying all these years, wondering why the government was not accepting what he had said earlier. Giving details of the incident, Masih said that Indians were working at a factory in Iraq in 2014.

“But we were kidnapped by militants and kept hostage for some days,” he said. On the fateful day, they were made to sit on their knees and the militants then opened fire upon them. “I was fortunate to have survived though a bullet hit my thigh and I fell unconscious,” he said.

He, however, managed to return to India after giving a slip to the ISIS militants suffering gun wound. As many as 39 Indians, who had gone to Iraq to earn their livelihood, had been missing since 2014. Among them, several were from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar in Punjab.

(PTI)

Lucknow: Coalition blues hit the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Monday as senior cabinet minister and Suhaildev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) President Om Prakash Rajbhar accused the BJP of “not respecting its alliance partners”.

Predicting bad days for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the minister alleged that the ruling party had “lost its mental balance in the wake of the brute majority handed over to it in the UP Assembly”.

The remarks came on a day when the BJP government completed one year in office and rolled out grand celebrations on the occasion.

Rajbhar also created a flutter in political circles by announcing that his support for the BJP’s Rajya Sabha nominees was still uncertain.

He said his party could have got at least 30,000 votes for the BJP in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-elections but he was not even asked to campaign.

“The BJP’s humiliating defeat in the by-elections is a result of its arrogance and reflects that within one year they have lost the trust of the people,” Rajbhar told IANS on phone.

He accused the BJP government of paying attention only to temples and doing nothing for the poor, backwards, Dalits and farmers. “A lot is being said, claimed and written but on the ground nothing is seen.”

The minister, whose party has four members in the UP Assembly, added: “For now we are with the NDA but the BJP is not following the coalition dharma.”

He also told IANS that till BJP President Amit Shah speaks to him to settle the issues raised by him, his legislators will not participate in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls slated for March 23.

(IANS)