Role of BJP in trolling opponents: Real or not real?

The power of trolling to target opponents is now accepted in social media. But is our ruling party involved in this to stop its opponents? It was long suspected by some but is now confirmed by an insider, Sadhavi Khosla, former BJP party volunteer who later left after thorough disillusionment.

A new book by the journalist Swati Chaturvedi, “I Am a Troll” throws new light on this. The book carries first hand accounts by Sadhavi Khosla.

JNU students had long back talked of BJP’s “cyber cell”

The JNU students had long ago talked of the BJP’s digital army. How it is working fulltime to blaspheme its opponents. They were taken aback by the way their prestigious university and especially its students were negatively highlighted in social media sites. The level of accusations was highly condemnable and the number of condoms used by students was talked about in these sites! “Shoot JNU Students, Professors And Close Chapter” … was the refrain in these sites.

Many leading political scientists and historians have written about the ruling party’s role in trolling opponents, including Jayati Ghosh, having faced it personally. Only it is now confirmed by an insider.

The trolls’ “hit list”

The trolls’ “hit list” included political opponents, such as the Congress party vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, prominent Indian journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt and many more. Its job was not limited to this. It also specialized in a highly mischievous way of spreading communally inflammatory information as in Kairana, UP. And circulating tampered videos.

Sadhavi Khosla claims in the book that from 2013 itself and for two years she was one of the many BJP supporters who received direct instructions from senior members of the BJP’s social media unit to troll opponents on social media sites. She received orders through WhatsApp but also met senior members of the digital unit, she claims.

Even rape threats made on women

“It was a never-ending drip-feed of hate and bigotry against the minorities, the Gandhi family, journalists on the hit list, liberals, anyone perceived as anti-Modi,” says Khosla.

“Every day some new person was a target and they would attack like a swarm of bees with vile sexual innuendoes, slander, rape and death threats … It made me feel suffocated as a woman.”

Barkha Dutt, the vocal NDTV journalist was singled out in these vicious accounts and received numerous rape threats, revealed Sadhavi Khosla.

Snap deal pressurized by government to remove Aamir Khan

Last year, in November 2015 Aamir Khan made the BJP uncomfortable in many eyes by speaking of the “growing intolerance” he felt was taking root in India. He and his wife Kiran Rao ,he said, are even contemplating living abroad due to the growing intolerance.

SnapDeal, a shopping website to which Aamir advertised, released a statement at that time distancing itself from the actor’s comments and did not renew his contract in February this year. Another Khan endorsement contract, for the Incredible India! tourism campaign was also allowed to lapse.

A question of integrity is lost after these revelations

The BJP was among the first major Indian parties to establish a website, and the head of its technology unit, Arvind Gupta, has boasted about the potential for social media to bypass mainstream TV news and press. The PM is most active in social media compared to other Indian politicians and posts regular updates to followers. Some of the trolls (who are the active followers of Modi on social media) have even been invited to meet the prime minister at Race Course Road.

Arvind Gupta expectedly denied that Sadhavi Khosla worked for the BJP and said that she was a Congress worker.