The slugfest between the BJP and the Congress on the hiring of controversial data company Cambridge Analytica (CA) escalated on Thursday as Union Minister for IT and law Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected the Congress’ claim that it had never used the services of the controversial firm.
The BJP leader said several media reports about the Opposition party using the services of the firm had appeared in October and November last year and it never denied those stories till the BJP raised the issue Wednesday. Prasad alleged that imprints of Cambridge Analytica were “visible” in the Congress’ campaign in Gujarat. It ran a “poisonous and divisive campaign” in the State, he claimed.
The Opposition party maintained a conspicuous silence on the role of a dubious company, he said, adding that it prompts him to question whether it has an ability to run this country.
A day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi criticised the handling of hostage issue and sought to say that the BJP was bringing the issue of CA to divert public attention from the death of 39 Indians in Iraq, Prasad accused the Congress leader of doing politics on bodies.
The Congress leader had suggested that the Government had “invented” a story about the Congress’ alleged links with a controversial data firm to divert the media attention from these deaths as it was caught “lying” on the issue.
Addressing a Press conference here , Prasad said it was the Congress which had disrupted proceedings in the lok Sabha when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had sought to make a statement on the deaths of these Indians.
“All I will tell Rahul he should not do politics on dead bodies of Indians who lost their lives in very unfortunate circumstances,” he told reporters and demanded to know the silence of Opposition party on the tainted firm which has been accused of manipulating FB data to impact poll results in different countries including the US and UK.
Prasad insisted that the Congress has used the services of Cambridge Analytica, which has been accused of harvesting people’s data from the social media and unlawfully to influence elections in different countries.
On questions about reports that an Indian company, which was Cambridge Analytica’s partner, might have worked for the BJP and its allies as well, Prasad insisted that his party never had any ties with the foreign company.
There is no authentic confirmation of any Indian partner of the company working for the BJP or its allies, he said.
He, however, sought to make a distinction between Cambridge Analytica and its partner, saying the former has been accused of using honey trap and data theft.