Cambridge Analytica: A saga of manipulation of data to influence electoral mandate?

Best credited for 'helping' Donald Trump emerge the ultimate winner in 2016 US Presidential elections, British data mining and analytics firm Cambridge Analytica in its home page claims to help political parties 'find voters' and 'move them into action,' media investigations say.

'We find your voters and move them to action....By knowing your electorate better, you can achieve greater influence while lowering overall costs'-it affirms.
According to a report in the British daily, 'The Guardian': 'The company at the centre of the Facebook data breach boasted of using honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world, a new investigation reveals.'

The company's home page further asserts: 'We are the global leader in data-driven campaigning with over 25 years of experience, supporting more than 100 campaigns across five continents. Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections.'
The media firestorm as well as tough comments from investigating agencies and governments came after Britain's Channel 4 News on Monday filmed senior executives at Cambridge Analytica, including its CEO Alexander Nix, suggesting the firm could use sex workers, bribes and misinformation in order to try and help political candidates win votes around the world.

Channel 4 released a three-part documentary titled ‘Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks’. Nix, meanwhile, has been suspended from the company. 

The Indian narrative:

In the Indian context, IT Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad warned against the abuse of technology and cautioned that if required, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could also be summoned. 

"Mr Marc Zuckerberg you better note, if any data theft or abuse of data is done by using the Facebook system it shall not be tolerated. We have stringent powers under the Information Technology Act including summoning you in India," Mr Prasad told reporters here. 

He also linked the Indian National Congress with the imbroglio. Mr Prasad questioned whether Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi had enlisted the services of the company to boost its election campaign in Gujarat and now in Karnataka.

The Congress dismissed the charges outright.

'News about Congress engaged/engaging with Cambridge Analytica is absolutely false,' the head of the social media unit of the Congress Divya Spandana tweeted. 

Sushma targets Rahul: Political row surfaces over killings of Indians in Iraq

Intense political backlash surfaced on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, over the deaths of 39 'missing and abducted Indians' in Iraq with the government and opposition parties trading charges on how best the "sensitive issue" could have been handled or was 'not handled'.
While opposition parties accused government for 'misleading the nation' on the issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi complimented External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and MoS Gen VK Singh. 

In a terse reaction, the Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said,''The Modi Government has crossed limited of insensitivity in the matter of the 39 Indians abducted in Iraq by the ISIS" and questioned why the government, the External Affairs Ministry and the External Affairs Minister "misled the country and the family members of the victims".  

Endorsing similar sentiment, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury condoled the deaths of Indians killed most likely by terror outfit Islamic State and tweeted saying: "The question about why the BJP government kept giving them false hopes of being alive for past three years must be answered". For her part, Ms Swaraj denied having "misled the country" and also made a vitriolic attack against the Congress for disrupting the proceedings in Lok Sabha when she was to make a statement on the matter. She especially directed her ire against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the unruly behaviour of the party MPs. 

Ms Swaraj asserted that the government "never misled" anyone nor gave any false hopes on the possibility of the survival of missing or abducted Indians. They were kidnapped in 2014 in Mosul, an IS infested hub.
She also said two heads of states have said earlier that "they (abducted Indians) were not killed".

Addressing a press conference here - shortly after making a statement on the issue in Rajya Sabha, Ms Swaraj said the government has so far no details on whether these Indians were tortured or abused as "slaves".
"We did not get any information about these details.....but yes, we got information from two heads of states that they have not been killed," she said.
Asked whether government could have given credence to the version of one of the survivors Harjeet Masih that all 39 Indians have been killed, the Foreign Minister said, "Harjeet Masih is just an individual....he can easily say somebody is dead. But we are a government here. We could have taken his words and said easily that they are dead, but that would have been irresponsible".

"Khoye huye ho to maare huye samjhe jaaoge' yeh sarkar aisi nahi hai (Just because you are missing, you may be considered dead, this NDA government is not like this)," Ms Swaraj said.

 "A responsible government has to look for evidence ...Our efforts have actually helped us to reach logical conclusion. Today I can affirmatively say, yes they are dead. I have their DNA certificates to say so", she said.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also has said that, "the way the government gave high hopes to the families was not right".
In fact, Harjeet courted controversy in 2015 - when months after government had asserted that efforts were still on to 'find' the missing Indians - mostly construction workers -  he had said all those abducted have been killed.
Speaking to the press at the Mohali residence of AAP leader Bhagwant Mann, Masih had said those ill-fated Indians were all shot a few days after they were abducted.
To a question here onTuesday, Ms Swaraj denied that Harjeet Masih was harassed. "There is no harassment...He was kept in protective custody only".

The story of lone survivor - Harjeet Masih - in the crisis in Iraq when 39 Indians first went missing in 2014 and now declared dead is turning curious and even murkier to an extent.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj - fielding volleys of questions on 28-year-old Masih who had managed to escape - told a press conference here that his version could not be given much credence.
"When Gen VK Singh (Minister for State for External Affairs) went there, the company owners said he changed his name into Ali and with a Bangladeshi visa, he escaped," Ms Swaraj told a press conference answering a pointed question.
Ms Swaraj was asked how could she be so certain that anything Harjeet Masih said was a "lie".
She also said: "I am satisfied that I had stated that I will declare them (39 missing Indians) dead only on the day I have concrete evidence, I kept my word. I will get my closure when I would hand over the mortal remains to their families and they receive proper last rites".       
"We had been saying that we neither have the evidence of them being alive nor the evidence of them being dead. We maintained this in 2014 and 2017. We did not keep anyone in dark. We gave no false hopes," she said.
To another question, Ms Swaraj denied that Harjeet Masih was harassed. "There is no harassment...He was kept in protective custody only".
In fact, Harjeet courted controversy in 2015 - when months after government had asserted that efforts were still on to find whether missing Indians - mostly construction workers -  he said all those abducted have been killed.
Speaking to the press at the Mohali residence of AAP leader Bhagwant Mann, Masih had said those ill-fated Indians were all shot a few days after they were abducted, and chances of their survival were “bleak”.

Slamming Congress members staging unruly scenes in the Lok Sabha, Ms Swaraj said: "For last few days the Congress party has been trying to give the impression that they are ready for a discussion on No Confidence motion. So what's that extra ordinary thing happened today .....I can understand only one reason. After seeing the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi) must have felt how this was allowed....So he disallowed the similar scene in Lok Sabha".
"Today's behaviour by Congress members in the House was of immense low ebb and it crossed politics of lowest nature (occhey rajniti)," she remarked.
Both in the Rajya and later at a press conference later, she said of the 39 Indians who went missing around June in 2014 - DNA tests conducted has confirmed that samples of 38 people have matched and one person Raju Yadav from Bihar has matched only 70 per cent.
"Of the 38 Indians, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal," Ms Swaraj said.
On whether some compensation may be announced for the families of the victims, Ms Swaraj said fist priority for the government is to reach help the bodies reach their destinations.
Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh will go to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians killed by terror outfit Islamic State (IS) and the bodies will be also taken to the nearest kin in Pubjab, Himachal, Bihar and West Bengal, she said.

Time will tell: Chandrababu Naidu says 'Namaskaram' to BJP-led NDA

Naidu may be back in national politics, but has to make sacrifice yet again

In the 1990s, N Chandrababu was said to have rejected the offer of Prime Ministership as his teenager son Nara Lokesh told him it would have been a "temporary job.' 

Naidu takes SECULAR bus yet again

Two decades later, he is back into the whirlpool of national politics of coalition.Within hours of his exit from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, Mr Naidu was not only among headlined but he also found "friendship tele calls" and favourable tweets from Mamata Banerjee and other regional players.In fact, the All India Trinamool Congress supremo and Bengal Chief Minister was among the first to "welcome" Mr Naidu's decision. She tweeted, "All political parties in the opposition (should) work closely together against atrocities, economic calamity and political instability.'

Red Fortress demolished in Tripura: BJP unleashes new contours

A visibly happy Prime Minister Narendra Modi told party workers at the BJP headquarters in Delhi that his government has taken Delhi to the doorstep of the people of the North-East, ending their alienation from the seat of governance.
The BJP and its allies are already in power in 19 states across India and adding Tripura and Meghalaya will put NDA in the seat of power in 21 states. In Nagaland, the BJP was in power in alliance with regional party NPF.

Giving new contours to the political map of northeast India, the Saffron party demolished the communists' raj and stormed to power in Tripura while it looked set to form coalition governments in alliance with regional parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya too. 

The BJP and its allies are already in power in 19 states across India and adding Tripura and Meghalaya will put NDA in the seat of power in 21 states. In Nagaland, the BJP was in power in alliance with regional party NPF.  Dedicating the unprecedented victory of the BJP to the untiring efforts, toil and sacrifices of the party workers over the last one year in the CPI(M)-citadel of Tripura, Mr Modi said the people had reposed their faith and trust in the Lotus party through the ballot, braving the politics of intimidation and violence. The CPI(M) could win 16 seats in Tripura where it has ruled since 1978 barring a five-year period of Congress rule from 1988 to 1993. 

But victories in northeast also means a lot for Modi-Amit Shah duo and hence it was not without good reason the BJP chief credited Prime Minister for the party victory. However, at the end of the day there are several issues those need to be looked into - on what really gave BJP the landslide victory. The party bagged an impressive two-thirds majority winning a historic verdict in its favour -- the 35 seat haul for itself and as many as eight (8) for its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).  

Brushing aside intellectuals' verdict, Modi marching on with global payers

The visiting Jordan King, who is credited for pioneering the “Aqaba Process” that makes mass level efforts in Arab world to counter radicalisation, is also the 41st generation descendant of Prophet Muhammad. Sharing stage at a function here, Mr Modi and the King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein spoke in one voice about moderation and pluralism.

Indian intellectuals and English media especially have already written off Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They see 'Nirav Modi' as an harbinger of great catalyst for revival of Congress and feel time is more than ripe probably to make 'paragons of virtues' Rahul Gandhi the next Prime Minister of India.  

But Modi is a player with  a difference. He wants to still play even as Lutyens' intellectuals feel - its is high time status returns into Indian polity. Dynasty is hence the favourite topic these days. However, at the global plane - Modi continues to get the importance he has been getting. 

Sharing stage at a function here, Mr Modi and the King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein spoke in one voice about moderation and pluralism.".....This fight is against that particular mindset that radicalises youth force, misguide them and lead them to perpetrate torture on the innocents," Prime Minister said speaking at a function in presence of Jodan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, who also delivered a speech on the theme "Islamic Heritage: Promoting Understanding and Moderation". ''Those who resort to violence and claim to fight for protection of the religion have actually harmed their own religion," Mr Modi said.

Making an inspiring speech, the King of Jordan said, "Today's global war against terror is not a fight between 

different religions. It is between all faiths and communities against extremism, hate and violence".

"Too much of what's heard or seen in the news today is about what separates people.....Around the world suspicions are being flamed by what different groups do not know about the other," he said adding such "ideologies of hate" distort the word of God to steer up conflict and "justify crime and terror". 

"Faith should draw the humanity together," he laid emphasis and pointed out that, "it is Faith that inspires the everyday experiences of people in countries like India and Jordan - where different religions and ethnic groups have together in amity throughout history".  

Prime Minister Modi lauded the role of Jordan King in his fight against radicalisation and said India will always support his efforts.

Things are happening. Somethings are moving according to plans -- in the direction Rahul Gandhi and his 'residential retainers' may not appreciate. 

Speaking in a function on the theme "Islamic Heritage: Promoting Understanding and Moderation", Jordan King Abdullah and Mr Modi pitched for 'moderate Islam' and tried to highlight that a section of radical Islamists have been trying to hijack the Arab world and other followers of Islam and bringing them into perpetual conflict with the rest of the world.

On diplomatic front, India and Jordan on March 1 shared keenness to take the cooperation further and both sides renewed their support to the Palestinian cause.

At the end of high-level delegation level talks led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King of Jordan Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, the two sides inked 12 pacts including on cooperation in defence, health and fertiliser sectors. 

"The talks with His Majesty @KingAbdullahII were wide-ranging and productive. Our discussions will add new vigour to India-Jordan friendship," Prime Minister Modi tweeted. 

"There is keenness on both sides to take this cooperation further and we are in the process of exploring avenues for enhancing the cooperation," T. S. Tirumurti, Secretary, Economic Relations in the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters at a media briefing. He further said: "Both leaders renewed their support and commitment to the Palestinian cause....."His Majesty was appreciative of our Prime Minister undertaking a standalone visit to Palestine through Amman".