Swati Chaturvedi's book I am a Troll: Whistleblower Sadhvi Khosla's credibility questioned

The cloud of controversy surrounding Swati Chaturvedi’s book  I am a troll: Inside the secret world of the BJP's digital army  continues to get murkier. The book that released last week on the Juggernaut imprint attracted instant attention for the details it contained about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its social media tactics and the methods employed to intimidate dissenters. Over the days since its release, the author has been — somewhat unsurprisingly — trolled viciously on social media and on certain online publications. Meanwhile, the credibility of Sadhvi Khosla — whose account of what it was like working in the BJP’s IT cell — has been called into question, most notably by Smita Barooah. Barooah was also part of the same cell for which Khosla worked, and has fiercely denied the claims made in Chaturvedi’s book.

So,the desperate cabal has created another false narrative using another pawn From intolerance to SM abuse,same old pattern,same players 1/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

This time INC troll uses a current INC volunteer (who switched sides from BJP) to malign people I worked closely with.No surprises there 2/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

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MSM worthies who peddled petty gossip as fact didn’t bother to do even basic research/ fact checks. No surprises there either 3/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

Basic questions MSM never asked:
Who is the lady whose allegations were lapped up by MSM?
What was her role?
What does she do now? 4/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

I was coordinator for the Mission272+ women’s volunteer wing. She worked for me. Information in public domain. Yet no MSM asked me. Why? 5/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

Answer is simple.Cabal & stooges weren’t interested in the truth anyway.They wanted cheap publicity and play a dirty political game 6/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

I repeat:Lady in question was 1 among lakhs of volunteers for Mission272+. Not in IT cell.Never part of any strategy/management meets 7/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

Have nothing else to say on the matter. Not interested in being a part of any silly games. Over & out! 8/8

— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) December 28, 2016

Silly games or not, there appear to be a few people who aren’t entirely convinced by Barooah’s claims.

Oh yes, @smitabarooah, it's obvious u hardly knew @sadhavi when she was in ur BJP IT team 😂👇🏼#UseAndThrow pic.twitter.com/9fyxm7QdgJ

— Suryanarayan Ganesh (@gsurya) December 28, 2016

Whether or not this escalates further remains to be seen. For now, one thing is certain, internet trolls are in for a fantastic start to the New Year.