New Delhi: The official Twitter accounts of the Congress party and its vice president Rahul Gandhi fell prey to hackers who posted a series of offensive tweets on Thursday.
Gandhi’s Twitter handle @OfficeOfRG, which has over 1.2 million followers, was changed to “Office of Retard Gan”. The Congress leader has filed a police complaint in connection with the cyber attack.
“A complaint was lodged by Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on behalf of Rahul Gandhi. We are in the process of registering a formal complaint on this matter,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy informed media.
The hackers have threatened to release a cache of confidential internal party emails and correspondence on WikiLeaks soon. Apparently, the Congress party’s server has been hacked.
“Coming up is a full dump of Congress emails, stay tuned for Christmas special,” the hackers posted on the wall of Gandhi.
Condemning the incident, Surjewala said, “such lowly tactics will never drown the sane voice of reason nor deter Rahul Gandhi from raising people’s issues. Such unscrupulous, unethical roguish conduct of venal trolls to hack the handle OfficeOfRG reflects disturbing insecurities of prevalent fascist culture.”
Sources in Congress told Gulf News that the party suspected a disgruntled employee’s hands behind the hacking. However, Surjewala denied this.
“There are no disgruntled employees in the party and it is not an insider job. Moreover, the posts were retweeted by Bhakts (slang for followers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi),” he added.
Surjewala said free speech and right to disagree in India is under attack by licensed trolls.
“First @OfficeOfRG and now @INCIndia hacked by lumpen fascists. Such despotic and vulgar attempts reflect the extremities of an intolerant culture that resorts to abuse when cornered and left answer less. Indian National Congress has fought such hatred and animosity with Gandhian compassion & tolerance,” he stated.
Congress also lashed out at the Modi government for poor cyber security. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said hacking was a huge concern in times of digital economy.
“Hacking will always be an issue but as we move towards digital economy, you must ensure accounts are not hacked. The government must assure systems are in place. There are big international crimes which have been committed by hackers and this is a serious matter,” Sibal said.
Countering Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted, “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has angered a lot of people. This could have been done from someone on the inside.”
Immediately after the cyber attack, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Twitter to remove the offensive tweets.
“As soon as I heard about the cyber attack, I spoke to the IT person in charge of Twitter. I have sought a report on Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter activity over the last one week. The central government will soon find out how the account got hacked,” Prasad told Gulf News.
Meanwhile, after the Twitter accounts were restored on Thursday, Gandhi wrote: “to every one of you haters out there, I love all of you. You are beautiful. Your hatred just does not let you see it yet.”
