[HumJanenge] Foxed by fake e-mail, IAC sends out a disclaimer

To:
The Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times House
Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi.

Date: 25.10.2012

Kind Attn:
"Editor responsible for selection of news",
(see, Press Council Act 1978)

BY EMAIL

Dear Sir,

Sub: Rejoinder to news report published in The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, edition on 24.10.2012 and also on the internet on 23.10.2012 titled as "Foxed by fake e-mail, IAC sends out a disclaimer" by anonymous HT Correspondent.


Please refer to the subject news report published by an anonymous correspondent. I say the impugned news story is substantially false, incorrect, biased and the correspondent  made no effort to contact the undersigned to provide a balanced and factually correct report.

Kindly take notice as under.

1) That your correspondent has published / implied that "India Against Corruption" movement is exclusively that of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal's faction. On behalf of the IAC ("India Against Corruption Collective"), I am directed to say that Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and volunteers working with him under the names and styles of Public Causes Research Foundation, Kabir, Parivartan etc. only form a small component of the IAC reform movement. It is pertinent to mention that the IAC was officially founded on 30.01.2011 at 1.00 PM (the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in Birla House) at a meeting at the Ram Lila grounds. The said meeting was convened by his Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar along with Swami Ramdev, Swami Agnivesh, Arch Bishop Vincent M Concessao, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare and many other eminent personalities including Mr J.M.Lyngdoh, Mr Justice Santosh Hegde, etc.

2) That on 03.08.2012 Mr. Arvind Kejriwal's faction decided to separate from the IAC movement to form an as yet unnamed political party. It is pertinent to mention that a website "www.indiaagainstcorruption.org" was registered in the personal name of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal at around the time the IAC movement was formed in Jan 2011. His Holiness Sr Sri Ravishankar, Mr Justice Santosh Hegde, Kiran Bedi, Bishop Concessao and many other founders of the IAC movement have immedediately and publicly disassociated themselves with Mr. Arvind Kejriwal's decision. For instance kindly refer news report in The Indian Express of 04.08.2012 titled "Anger, scepticism within IAC over political leap" by their correspondent Abantika Ghosh.

3) That the URL of the IAC mailing list published in the report is incorrect. It was published by HT that the URL is "info.indiaagainstcorruption.org", whereas the correct URL is "https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/indiaagainstcorruption"
Kindly correct this immediately.

4) That pursuant to Mr. Kejriwal's decision to unilaterally indulge in adventurist activities which do not have the approval of IAC's founders or the general body, he and his followers have been indulging in a series of cyber hacking activities to shut down internet social groups and mailing lists which publish information exposing his corrupt and profiteering activities. For example kindly refer the news report in The Business Standard of 22.Sept.2012 titled "India Against Corruption assets caught in tug of war" by Sreelata Menon which clearly shows how Mr Kejriwal with the "connivance of a government agency" was able to illegally swallow the IAC Facebook page into his much small page. To almost everyone else in the IAC movement, it is clear that Mr.Kejriwal is a paid agent of the Government and his actions are not conducive to the long term objectives of the IAC movement.

5) That with the connivance of the same government agency, Mr. Kejriwal was also able to shut down, on 16.10.2012, an internet RTI mailing list titled "Humjanenge" having over 9,000 subscribers who were mainly public servants, and which list was stridently critical of Mr Kejriwal and his high level backers in the ruling NAC who have instigated Mr Kejriwal to split the highly successful IAC movement. Mr Kejriwal did this after a public spat between the Owner of Humjanenge mailing list and Smt. Aruna Roy on 13.Oct 2012 at the DRDO Bhawan at the 7th RTI National Convention of Information Commissioners.

6) That recently Mr Kejriwal's office sent an email to IAC HQ clarifying the position to some of the 27 queries posed to him by Mr. Digvijaya Singh concerning his personal affairs unconnected with the IAC. The same was reproduced faithfully on the IAC mailing list which is a private mailing list for IAC workers. It is pertinent to mention that the eminent journalist Ms. Sucheta Dalal, who is evidently privy to the said email, in an email published on the IAC mailing list has admitted as such and was dissatisfied that only last line therein was added by IAC HQ.  IAC HQ is aggrieved that Mr. Kejriwal is not prepared to stand by the email sent at 8:12 am from his widely known official email IAC ID "indiaagainstcorruption.2010@gmail.com" and is instead palming off 2 personal gmail IDs of his junior staff as official IDs of the IAC movement. The same is reprehensible and your anonymous correspondent seems to have swallowed and published Mr Kejriwal's version hook line and sinker.

7) That IAC HQ has reason to believe that Mr Kejriwal has retracted the contents of his office's email, the copy of which is retained by us, because immediately upon its coming into the public domain, the affected Humjanenge RTI mailing list shot off a statutory public grievance petition to the NAC concerning the role of Chairperson NAC, Aruna Roy and Mr. Pulok Chatterjee, referring to Mr. Kejriwal's statements.

8) That even the official spokesperson for Mr. Kejriwal's faction, Ms. Aswathi Murlidharan in her emails has not contradicted / disputed the contents of the published statements made by Mr Kejriwal to IAC HQ. She had only disputed that the IAC HQ mailing list was not an official one. We say this is part of a long term strategy of Mr. Kejriwal's faction to either take over IAC assets or when that fails to shut them down with assistance of Government agencies.

9) That after Mr Kejriwal's unethical and selfish actions in shutting down common internet resources, the IAC HQ was compelled to start an internet mailing list at the URL of para 3 because there was no other mailing list for the IAC's volunteers and the 'aam aadmi'. The mailing list has 7,000 genuine email IDs and will have over 30,000 email IDs of IAC volunteers very shortly. All emails circulated from there are archived in the public domain accessible at URL "https://lists.riseup. et/www/arc/indiaagainstcorruption"
However, many persons associated with Mr Kejriwal's faction have been circulating false, abusive and intimidatory emails to defame the larger IAC movement by palming off their emails as originating from the IAC mailing list.

10) That on 20.10.2012 the Hindustan Times published a full page article on Mr. Kejriwal titled "Anarchist or aam aadmi ?" by Varghese K George and Nagendar Sharma including a section on "Arvind's close aides". It is clear from your own paper's article that Mr. Kejriwal and his aides all originate from and have strong links in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Kejriwal's movement is controlled and run by the advocate father-son duo of Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan who are well known as linked to UP politicians and received favours from them. As such this tiny coterie are not representative of the pan-Indian IAC movement.

Accordingly, IAC HQ calls upon you to ensure that prominent and balanced news reports are published immediately to rectify and remedy the situation. In the alternative, the IAC will turn the matter over to counsel for further redress.

For any further clarifications kindly contact the undersigned at the official email ID of IAC HQ.

Ajay Dixit
National Cyber Media Coordinator (IAC HQ)
"info.indiaagainstcorruption@gmail.com"