Congress shows how BJP used Cambridge Analytica to influence elections

Accusing the BJP and JD(U) of using the services of the controversial firm Cambridge Analytica, which is under a scanner in the UK and the US for mining Facebook data to wage a psychological battle to influence voters in the US presidential election and the vote on Brexit in UK, Congress on Wednesday denied having hired the services of the firm.

Law(less) Minister’s ‘fake spins’ about to be exposed, tweeted the party’s communications cell chief Randeep Singh Surjewala , hours after Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party had links with Cambridge Analytica.

Surjewala, however, referred to information available on the company’s website and also on the website of Cambridge Analytica’s Indian arm to show that it was indeed the BJP which had used the services of the controversial firm, not just in 2010 but possibly also in 2014.

Citing information available on the website of Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI)—an Indian affiliate of CA's parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL)—Congress charged that the firm furnished a constituency-wise database to BJP candidates for state and national elections.

Surjewala’s stand was borne out by senior NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain who tweeted a screenshot to suggest BJP’s complicity.

Addressing a press conference, Surjewala said, "Cambridge Analytica's website shows that in 2010 its services were used by BJP-JD(U). The firm's Indian partner Ovlene Business Intelligence is being run by the son of an MP from a BJP ally. OBI company's services were also used by Rajnath Singh in 2009."

Earlier Law Minister Prasad said in a press conference that Cambridge Analytica had been accused of using "sex, sleaze and fake news" to influence elections and asked if the Congress too planned to win elections the same way.

"Indian National Congress or the Congress President has never used or never hired the services of a company called Cambridge Analytica. It is a fake agenda and white lie being dished out by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad," Surjewala said.

The Law Minister’s press conference followed Congress leader and former minister Manish Tewari’s tweet in the morning in which he called upon the Election Commission to inquire or recommend an inquiry into how the services of Cambridge Analytica and its Indian arms were used in elections.

Congress leaders accused Ravi Shankar Prasad of stating “white lies” and making wild and fake allegations to divert attention from other issues and also to deflect attention from its own involvement with the dubious means used by Cambridge Analytica.

While the lid was blown by The Guardian on the role of Cambridge Analytica in Brexit and President Trump’s election, an investigation by Channel 4 also revealed damning information.

The TV channel’s investigation says that Cambridge Analytica “executives boasted (to its reporters) that Cambridge Analytica and its parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) had worked in more than two hundred elections across the world, including Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India and Argentina.”

SCL’s India unit, SCL India, which as mentioned previously is a venture between SCL Group and OBI, according to OBI, has on its web site a page that lists OBI’s ‘political campaign management’ work.

On that page are pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, although under its client list—which it misspells “Our Client’s” instead of “Our Clients”—it doesn’t mention AAP.