In what exposes a likely attempt to buy social media influence ahead of the 2021 legislative assembly polls in the state of West Bengal, ‘The Darjeeling Chronicle’, a news website that strongly supports the idea of Gorkhaland statehood, has levelled serious allegations against Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), a political consultancy outfit, led by political strategist Prashant Kishor. The allegations state of making an attempt to buy social media influence. Recently, it was roped in by Mamata Banerjee led TMC, the ruling party in West Bengal, for 2021 legislative polls in the state. This decision was taken after the TMC faced a massive decline in popularity and number of seats during the Lok Sabha elections in the face of a rising BJP.
Now, The Darjeeling Chronicle has published a report on its website, according to which the news website had received an email from one Nikita Chatterjee, on July 31, 2019, only a few weeks after the news of TMC hiring IPAC had become public. A copy of the mail released by The Darjeeling Chronicle shows that there was a clear offer by a “well-known political agency” to the addressee (The Darjeeling Post) to work in coordination.
Although there is no direct mention of IPAC in the mail, the mention of West Bengal and “a well known political agency” does give obvious hints.
The report states that the news website did not bother to reply to this offer. However, the news website received yet another offer. This time around the email address of the addressee, Avesh Singh makes his association with the IAPC crystal clear. It is also relevant to mention here that the offer makes it clear that there are monetary benefits attached to it.
The poster in the mail reads, “We will also give monetary benefits in two variants. You will get paid for sharing our content and also merchandise directly from the party.”
It is rather preposterous and shocking how a political consultancy firm hired by a mainstream political party, has gone to the extent of making a brazen attempt to buy social media influence by giving monetary benefits.
It is understandable for a political consultancy outfit to go about hiring PR agencies or running advertisement campaigns, but an open attempt to pay a news website for political purposes is an outright assault on democracy. TMC also cannot get away with this merely on the basis of the fact that it was IPAC which extended this offer when the political consultancy outfit had been hired by the TMC in the first place.
The Darjeeling Chronicle deserves to be lauded for the way it has stood up to the establishment and a political consultancy firm which has the backing of the ruling party in the state of West Bengal. The news website has shown utmost journalistic courage by turning down the preposterous offer to get paid for ‘specific’ political content.
The Darjeeling Chronicle made a counteroffer of volunteering pro bono if the IPAC and Prashant Kishor could get Mamata Banerjee to come out openly in support of Gorkhaland. It has made it clear that its “Page is not for sale.”