 "Aamir Khan")
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan had created a stir in late 2015 by saying that his wife Kiran Rao had wondered whether they should move out of the country due to the rising intolerance. Following the incident, a campaign was run on social media defaming the actor and an attempt was made to force e-commerce platform Snapdeal to drop Aamir as their brand ambassador. The planned attack on the actor was carried out under the watchful eyes of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP’s) IT cell head, claims Sadhavi Khosla, a former volunteer of BJP's social media team.
Khosla has shared Whats App messages which were sent to the IT team members in this regard with journalist Swati Chaturvedi. The details are mentioned in Chaturvedi's upcoming book I am a Troll, a report published in The Indian Express said.
In the messages shared by Khosla, Arvind Gupta, BJP's IT cell head is seen asking volunteers to sign a petition for Aamir's removal as the brand ambassador of Snapdeal.
“Sign the Petition to Snapdeal India. Appeal Snapdeal to drop Aamir Khan from their ads,” read one of the messages with a link to sign an online petition.
However, when contacted Gupta rubbished the claims and called Khosla a "Congress supporter". He also said that he does not directly monitor the activities of the party's IT cell since July 2015.
Another message sent by HDL (Hindu Defence League) read, "Time to attack Snapdeal like…(we) did with greenply plywood and forced them to withdraw the defamatory ad!! Snapdeal customer care number…& threaten of negative publicity & ruining business if amir khan is not kicked out from brand ambassadorship!! Let’s show Hindu unity."
Apparently, HDL also shared the picture of a magazine cover where the story of Aamir's alleged illegitimate child Jaan was published. In her book, Chaturvedi wrote that HDL’s Twitter handle @HDLindiaOrg—which is suspended now—was also followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While the soon-to-be-published book quotes a volunteer revealing the details of how the "trolling" went about, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in July 2016 also hinted at certain steps that the saffron party took to ensure Aamir's exit from Snapdeal.
At a book launch event in Pune, without taking anybody's name, Parrikar spoke about an "actor" whose statement was "arrogant" and an online trading company. " If anyone speaks like this, he has to be taught a lesson of his life,” Parrikar had said, adding, some of our people are very smart, I know. There was a team working on this. They were telling people you order and return it… The company should learn a lesson, they had to pull his advertisement.”
Snapdeal did not renew Khan’s contract in January 2016.
