‘Leaked’ letter to Facebook: BJP’s Malviya, Cong’s Tewari in war of words | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday tweeted a letter written by Manish Tewari to Facebook and targeted the Congress for allegedly using the social media giant to influence the political process in India. In a swift counterattack, Tewari said the letter written by him was “leaked” to the BJP by Facebook itself which indicates a “collusion” between the two.
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya today said Congress leader Manish Tewari wrote a letter to Facebook management on August 18, in which he said that Facebook management could get in touch with his senior policy advisor Bharat Gopalaswamy in the US.
Citing the letter, the BJP leader, in a series of tweets, questioned if Indian MPs can hire lobbyists in US masquerading as advisors.

Whose interests do these US based lobbyists serve when they advise Congress MP Manish Tewari, he asked.
Amit Malviya said that Bharat Gopalaswamy served as the director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, where Manish Tewari also served.
He said that Atlantic Council controls and guides Facebook’s effort in dealing with political propaganda.
“Interestingly, when Facebook purged a large number of pages last year, while some pro-Congress pages were also taken down, the following of pro-right wing pages was 10 times that of pro-Congress pages. This process was also led by the Atlantic Council,” the BJP leader claimed.
“The Atlantic Council is also a global Facebook partner in its election integrity efforts,” he said, adding, “In light of these revelations, it is puzzling that the INC, at the first instance, has clandestinely chosen to use the services of Bharat Gopalaswamy to lobby for INC with Facebook.”
“It is clear that by using the services of Think Tanks/its members, who use the charade of academic neutrality, INC has compromised its position. It is clear such alliances and services are used to gain access to FB’s management to influence the political process in India,” Amit Malviya said.
In a counter-attack, Tewari accused the social media giant of leaking his letter to the BJP IT cell chief and said that this showed its collusion with the ruling party.
In a series of tweets, Tewari said: “Nothing demonstrates alleged collusion between certain elements at Facebook and certain elements at BJP than tweeting of my letter to Facebook Senior Management sent – August 18 2020 in the evening by @amitmalviya (BJP’s IT cell chief).”
He sought to know who in Facebook shared his letter with Malviya even before it was formally acknowledged.

Responding to Malviya’s remarks, Tewari clarified that Dr Bharat Gopalaswamy, whom he mentioned in his letter, was the Director of South Asia Centre at the Atlantic Council till last month. “He is an Indian. He advises me Pro-Bono on policy issues,” he said in his tweet.
“I am surprised that Amit Malviya who comes from a party that Tom-TOM’s NRI’s & organises massive events abroad like Howdy Modi would like to paint my taking advise from a Gentleman of INDIAN ORIGIN PRO-BONO as blasphemy,” he said, asking the BJP leader to first disclose who in Facebook gave him the letter.
Tewari said that rather than responding to “concrete questions asked of Facebook”, it seems Malviya has been deployed to “deflect from serious revelations made in the WSJ story with regard to the alleged bending of Facebook’s hate speech laws and alleged interference in Indian Democratic and electoral processes”.
He said that he was “surprised” that Facebook had taken the “Amit Malviya route”.
(With inputs from agencies)