Nothing aam about it: AAP vs AVAM Twitter war gets nasty, personal

New Delhi: Hacked emails, fake IDs, discreet extraction of classified information and finally the (mis)use of data in social media to harass someone - this could well be the perfect ingredient for a cyber-crime thriller. Interestingly, the plot seems to have slipped out of some novel and taken real shape in the battle between the Aam Aadmi Party and its latest challenger, the AAP Volunteers’ Action Manch (AVAM), a splinter group of the Arvind Kejriwal-led political outfit. In the latest turn of events, AVAM has lodged complaints against its parent body, AAP, with the Cyber Crime Cell of Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing, alleging that the latter has been sending fraudulent messages to malign AVAM linking it to the BJP by using fake IDs, thus misguiding volunteers across the country.[caption id=“attachment_1678571” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AAP volunteers. AFP[/caption] “AAP is maligning us and misguiding volunteers using fake Twitter handles. This is their modus operandi – maligning, character assassination of opponents when they can’t fight. Like they did with Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani and many others during the elections,” alleged AVAM spokesperson, Gopal Goel, who once was with AAP’s legal cell and an important functionary in the party. Firstpost has access to the copies of complaints registered with the police that show tweets from AVAM’s Twitter handle – “AAP not listening to volunteers. Lets all leave AAP. Modiji has given hope 2 India. We’ll talk to BJP. All AVAM vols will join BJP…..BJP mein Swaraj hoga.” “These are the fake Twitter handles created by them and against this we’ve lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police, with evidence. If AAP can give any proof of our secret involvement or any kind of under-cover dealing with the BJP, as they have alleged, we would commit mass self-immolation at Jantar Mantar,” said Goel. In its police complaint, AVAM has alleged that some miscreants within the AAP have misused AAP’s database of volunteers by forging Karan Singh’s ID for sending fraudulent SMSes and messages through Twitter and Facebook to tarnish his image, and create confusion among public about BJP’s involvement in the entire episode. The Twitter war is on full swing on the social media platform and it has gone personal with Goel and Ankit Lal, head of AAP’s IT Cell, on opposite sides. Gopal Goel has accused Ankit Lal of defaming him. He alleged that Lal tweeted from (ankitlal@indiapostlive) on 20 August – “It’s worth mentioning that Mr Goyal approached @ AAP for ticket with 1.5 crore rupees and was shown the door.” In response Goel tweeted (@Anna Gopal) on 21 August – “U hav exactly 1.5 days or 36 hours to swallow ur rubbish n tender an unconditional public apology or I see u in court.” “I have asked both Ankit Lal, and the AAP to provide substantial proof on the allegation he made against me, or else I would file defamation suit against him, and ready to move the Supreme Court, if needed,” Goel said. Rubbishing the allegations, Lal in a text message to Firstpost said, “We’ve better things to do in life than creating fake handles. AVAM guys are good at levelling fake allegations and they haven’t even spared Arvind Kejriwal. These allegations are false like their other charges on the party.” “However, it’s to be seen how low this group stoops to in trying to defame the party. On the other hand, they are misusing party’s name, symbol, cap and even collecting money in the name of AAP… and who’s to be held accountable for that?” asks Lal. AVAM was formed by a section of AAP volunteers, after the former failed to make its demands and grievances heard by the top party functionaries. “We asked for greater transparency within the party at volunteers’ level, elected representatives at every level within the party, redress the growing grievances among grass root workers especially after our Lok Sabha debacle and implementation of Swaraj in AAP about which Arvind Kejriwal propagates," said Karan Singh, an expelled volunteer, who was in charge of volunteers and the grievances redressal cell in AAP. The party expelled Singh, the convener of AVAM, after show causing him on charges of alleged anti-party activities. That is another story, and now AVAM that claims to have a backing of more than 4,000 volunteers is on an indefinite dharna at the Jantar Mantar. If the entire AAP-AVAM episode sounds like a plot of a crime thriller, it needs to have investigators to crack the case, which anyway does not seem to be taking place. “The uniqueness of this case is its blame-game war by using Twitter, Facebook etc that attract worldwide attention due to active social networking. But, this kind of allegations, mudslinging, stealing party’s data and misusing it - have become a part of politics at present. And, our political clients approach us to solve these kind of issues,” said the head of a reputed detective agency, requesting anonymity citing professional reason.