Weekly Political Roundup: A week of leaks

Looking at the number of leaks that have been reported this week, we can safely say that this week will go down in contemporary political history as the ‘Week of Leaks’.

For a country like India, leaks are nothing new. From leak in taps to the leaks in our systems, the average Indian citizen is now used to this. However, looking at the number of leaks that have been reported this week, we can safely say that this week will go down in contemporary political history as the ‘Week of Leaks’. The leaks not only caused a stir in the society but also created ripples in the political sphere. In this Weekly Political Roundup, let’s have a look at the biggest leaks that shook the country.

Congress’ link to Cambridge Analytica data leak:

Though the Facebook data breach hit the West world a few weeks ago, in India its repercussions were felt strongly this week. In the wake of reports of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining giant using the private data of 50 million Facebook users without authorization, Back home, political parties such as Congress, JD(U) and BJP had come under the scanner. Earlier, the Cambridge Analytica’s India partner had claimed to have helped the BJP-JD(U) alliance in 2010. The firm was owned by Amrish Tyagi-son of the JD(U) leader KC Tyagi. However, the recent revelation by the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, the company’s endeavours in India date back to 2003-2004 General Election period. Recently, while testifying in front of the UK’s House of Commons, Wylie named Congress as CA’s India client. A day after he also revealed on his Twitter that CA’s India operations spun over a decade.

You can read the detailed report on Congress’ link to Cambridge Analytica data leak, here:

Cambridge Analytica Row: SCL group helped in Indian elections since 2003, reveals the whistleblower

Karnataka Assembly Elections Date leak:

Last Tuesday, the Election Commission announced the dates of polling for the Karnataka Assembly elections. The Election Commission Chief O P Rawat held a press conference in Delhi to make announcements regarding the Karnataka Assembly elections. While the EC announced that the date of polling will be May 12 and the results will be announced on May 15, the presser remained in news for a different reason. The Election Commission had conducted the press conference at around 11 AM on March 27. Eight minutes into the presser, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted the date of polling and the date of counting. At the surface, the tweet did not invite much suspicion until Twitteratis realised that his announcement came even before the Election commission officially announced the dates. However, the counting dates were wrong. The BJP received a lot of flak from the opposition.

You can read the detailed report on Karnataka Assembly Elections Date leak, here:

Not only BJP’s Amit Malviya, Karnataka Congress’ Shrivatsa too announced polling dates before election commission!

CBSE Paper leak:

The third leak of this week hit the country very next day as lakhs of students had to suffer due to the CBSE Paper leak. The CBSE issued a notice stating that in light of Class 10^th(Maths) and Class 12^th (Economics) exam paper leak, it will conduct a re-test. The scale of the affected population due to this leak can be understood by the number of students appearing for these examinations every year, which is generally more than a million. While Union HRD Minister promised strict action against the culprits, students who had planned to appear for various entrance exams took it to the street to protest against the CBSE.

The recent development in the case points towards the involvement of local ABVP leader from Jharkhand in the paper leak. According to the police, He ran coaching classes in the locality and had offered students question paper in exchange for money.