Cambridge Analytica row: Congress, BJP in war of words over hiring firm

For a second day in succession, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress accused each other of hiring data mining company Cambridge Analytica (CA). It is under probe for allegedly using data of millions of Facebook users, without their consent, for influencing the US presidential election.
 
The Congress demanded the BJP clarify whether Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), the Indian associate of CA, provided services to them.
 
OBI said it was “shocked and surprised” at the controversy about data breach, and that it was looking to end its association with CA. OBI's website was suspended on Wednesday.
 

Ovleno's Vice-President Himanshu Sharma said his company was not denying association with CA. “But, we are a ground research company, closely working with various media houses.  We do not undertake any project with Cambridge Analytica related to social media.” “We want to clarify neither the whistleblower or Facebook has confirmed any kind of data breach in India,” Sharma said.

 
In Patna, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav said Janata Dal (United) leader K C Tyagi's son Amrish is associated with Ovleno, which is in the client list of CA.
 
In New Delhi, Tyagi said his party JD(U), has no relation with the firm. “The relation between my son's company and Cambridge Analytica was only work related. There is no financial transaction or shareholding. Everything is open to probe,” he said.

 
Earlier in the day, Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Problem: 39 Indians dead. Government on the mat, caught lying. Solution: Invent story on Congress and data theft. Result: Media networks bite the bait; 39 Indians vanish from radar. Problem solved.”
 
Law and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Gandhi of doing politics on dead bodies, and rejected the Congress' claim. Prasad insisted the opposition party and Gandhi did use the firm's services.
 
The minister said the Congress members had disrupted the proceedings when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had sought to make a statement on the deaths of the Indian workers in Iraq.

 
Prasad added several media reports about the Congress using the services of CA had appeared in October and November. These  imprints were “visible” in the Congress' campaign. It ran a “poisonous and divisive campaign in Gujarat”, he claimed.
 
Congress MPs Ambika Soni and Partap Singh Bajwa said they would be moving a privilege motion against Swaraj in the Rajya Sabha for “misleading” the House on the issue of the death of the workers. They demanded Swaraj make public the sources who formed the basis of her earlier claims that the workers were alive.