Right-wingers want Twitter India's news chief removed, call him anti-Modi

Editor’s note: This report has been edited to correct a quote attributed to Arvind Gupta of the BJP’s information technology cell.  Right-wing bloggers and supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi are now protesting  the appointment of Kashmir-born Raheel Khursheed as head of the news, politics and government division at Twitter Inc’s India unit. Khursheed’s criticism of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has apparently irked his supporters enough to demand his ouster through a petition on change.org. In his new role Khursheed, a well-known former Kashmiri journalist and online activist, is responsible for tracking and expanding Twitter’s relationship with journalists, editors and politicians, and will also increase their active usage of Twitter. The movers of the online petition say Khursheed has in the past been severely critical of alleged human rights violations committed by the Army in Kashmir as well as of Modi’s role in the 2002 violence in Gujarat. [caption id=“attachment_1315365” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Arvind Gupta of the BJP’s information technology cell is quoted in Mint as saying Twitter has been successful as a “neutral as well as open-ended platform” of communication. “I am afraid that this appointment will hamper that image in India,” Gupta is quoted as saying. Khursheed, 33, who hails from the South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, was until recently director of communication at change.org, a US-based online social campaigning group. There he oversaw several campaigns including one on juvenile justice in Kashmir and another called StopRape, a campaign after the 16 December gangrape in Delhi. He was unavailable for comment. It appears that some tweets by Khursheed on Modi have invited the wrath of the right-wing bloggers who are seeking his immediate removal from the company. Following the news of BJP’s opposition to Khursheed’s appointment, many Kashmiris responded on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Some chose to link the BJP’s communal character with the issue, others raised the issue of lack of tolerance for differing views. Editor-in-Chief of Rising Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari, tweeted: “Happy for Raheel Khursheed for making BJP scary abt his appointment as Twitter India head. A Kashmiri has potential to be threat to a national party in India like BJP.” Showkat Nayeem, another Kashmiri scholar, tweeted: “BJP is an intolerant party which can’t tolerate the personal opinion of the person.” Meanwhile, an online campaign was launched on Change.org, the company where Khursheed worked until recently, seeking the removal of Khursheed. It is addressed to the CEO of Twitter Dick Costolo. The petition has received 1,500 signatures. It reads: “While we the petitioners have no business of questioning Mr Khursheed’s professional qualifications but his political bias and statements in the past makes us believe that he will not be able to discharge his duties in an unbiased manner. Mr Khursheed for past many years through his tweets has displayed sheer contempt and hate for NDA’s Prime Minister Candidate Mr Narendra Modi, even calling him a mass murderer.” Khursheed’s LinkedIn profile page says he now heads News, Politics and Govt. Partnerships at Twitter India. In June 2012, he tweeted:In August that year:

  About the Congress, he had this to say.

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