Bravo! How co-founder of Aadhaar-linked think tank anonymously trolled activists
A group of anti-Aadhaar activists have alleged that Sharad Sharma - the co-founder of iSpirt, a think tank has closely worked with Aadhaar - has been trolling them via anonymous accounts on Twitter.
You know what’s bizarre?
It is true.
In the age of social media, it is either troll or be trolled. And India’s right wing seems to have mastered the former art. At the fag end of 2016, journalist Swati Chaturvedi, in her new book I Am a Troll, made explosive claims about a highly-functional troll factory owned by the BJP.
The social media cell allegedly covertly manufactured outrage to suit its agenda and set narratives. Chaturvedi’s allegations, whether true or not, were perhaps a trailer of what 2017 would bring us.
One of the most contentious issues of this year has been the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or the Aadhaar. While the creation of UIDAI has been a cause for concern among civil society groups and political parties since its conception under the UPA-2, it was the NDA government and its aggressive policies related to Aadhaar that led to a lot of activists coming out in protest.
Whether it is a fact that Aadhaar is an infringement on our fundamental right to privacy and that the government has been defying the Supreme Court’s order by deeming Aadhaar a mandatory document for welfare schemes, a slew of journalists, politicians, techies and activists began a movement to battle the gargantuan monster that is Aadhaar.
True to Indian character, however, the battle for preserving one’s basic right to privacy has somehow been dubbed (by the right wing, of course) as a ploy to besmirch any good that has been brought about in this country by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
And as is expected, the pro-Aadhaar voices repeatedly lob tweet bombs that question the ulterior (read pro-Congress) motives of such activists and their anti-Hindutva/anti-BJP biases.
Apart from that, these activists are just trolled in general with personal remarks, expletives and sometimes threats being directed at them. And who do these tweets come from?
Anonymous accounts, of course.
But can anonymity be guaranteed? Clearly not. Recently, and yes this is as bad as it gets, one of the founders of the Indian Software Products Industry Round Table (iSpirt), an influential think-tank that has been associated with Aadhaar, Sharad Sharma was accused of creating anonymous accounts for trolling anti-Aadhaar activists.
And as it turns out, he was behind it (because he confessed to his wrongdoing, but not before it was properly proven by the ones he sought to troll).
So, what is iSpirt?
The Indian Software Products Industry Round Table, or iSpirt was founded in 2013 by members of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) – a trade association of the Indian IT and BPO sector – to “draft and take policy proposals to government officials; create reusable ‘playbooks’ from successful companies that can be applied by others; and create ‘self-help communities’”.
According to their website, iSpirt converts ideas into policy proposals to take to government stakeholders. It also aims to help Indian software companies build better products and aid them in making a mark in the global sphere. One of iSpirt’s bigger initiatives is IndiaStack, a collection of application program interfaces (APIs) for large-scale tech infrastructure projects, including both Aadhaar and UPI.
But what does a think tank have to do with trolling?
Kiran Jonnalagadda, one of the founders of Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), had alleged that an anonymous Twitter handle (one of the many that trolled him online on a regular basis, because of his staunch anti-Aadhaar tweets) called @Confident_India, was being operated by Sharad Sharma.
Sharma is the co-founder, governing council member and director of iSpirt. He is a rather influential name in the IT sector and the India start-up sphere. In fact, his Medium post reads, "Sharad is a powerful figure, perhaps the only one with a reach spanning from small, unfunded startups to the upper bureaucracy of government. You want to be on Sharad’s good side."
How did he come to this conclusion?
On May 1, a report authored by Amber Sinha and Srinivas Kodali for The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) provided information about how the Aadhaar details of approximately 135 million people were available on various websites.
The handle @Confident_India seemed devastated about the whole affair, of course. When people point out leaks in the system, the obvious reaction is to attack those people with the accusation of an agenda. That’s the first rule of the right-wing troll handbook.
The troll account made repeated mentions of CIS being foreign-funded (a regular right-wing assault), and that it was breaking FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) laws, without actually elaborating on what laws were being broken.
What is strange, however, is the fact that in one such heated Twitter “debate”, Sharma popped up in the mention of Jonnalagadda, reiterating what was said by the @Confident_India account.
“Sharad Sharma’s original account doesn’t follow any of these people on the thread. The conversation would not have shown on his timeline. Yet both @confident_India and Sharad Sharma made the same argument,” says Jonnalagadda in his blog.
In another instance, a question addressed to Sharma was answered by the troll account.
This was when Jonnalagadda tried to trace the account to Sharma. He tried to change the troll account’s password on Twitter by providing Sharma’s mobile number as the identifier. And voila! The it was a better fit than Cinderella’s shoe.
What's this? Have we caught an Aadhaar troll? Can someone try this and confirm? #AadhaarTrollMafia pic.twitter.com/9pzru7Lz2U
— Kiran Jonnalagadda (@jackerhack) May 17, 2017
Of course, the allegations were denied by Sharma. Even iSpirt issued a response, denying the allegations:
Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSPIRT, named in these allegations is in the US for a medical emergency in his family. As of this morning, Eastern Standard Time, Sharad has categorically denied these allegations. We will further investigate the confusion around the alleged link of mobile number and clarify all outstanding questions. For the moment, we are prioritising the well-being of Sharad and his family.
We want to categorically state that the allegations against iSPIRT coordinating and/or promoting any troll campaign are false and the evidence presented is a deliberate misreading of our intent to engage with those speaking against India Stack.
The activists, however, did not buy into this at all. Half an hour before he denied his links to the troll account on Twitter, another anonymous troll account tweeted a similar response to these allegations.
Fishy, eh? Although that account deleted the tweets soon, a screenshot immortalised them, thanks to a vigilant activist.
The moment of Truth
And even as the activists persisted for more than a week in the face of denial by both Sharma and iSpirt, in the end, the truth was out of the horse’s mouth. For whatever reason, Sharad Sharma, on May 23, tweeted from his account an admission of his guilt.
“On my flight back from the US, I reflected on my recent behaviour on Twitter... I unreservedly apologise to all who were hurt,” said Sharma.
On my flight back from the US, I reflected on my recent behaviour on Twitter.... I unreservedly apologize to all who were hurt... more below pic.twitter.com/IinZIg2yi2
— Sharad Sharma (@sharads) May 23, 2017
In his apology, he dubbed his behaviour “a lapse of judgment” and said “anonymity seemed easier than propriety”.
He took all the blame on himself, thereby taking all responsibility away from iSpirt. In his apology, he also mentioned that the governing council of iSpirt has set up a guidelines and compliance committee (IGCC) that would investigate the issue and redefine the iSpirt code of ethics.
Battle won? Not quite
Far from being criticised or censured, Sharma - a man who used the cover of anonymity to hurl abuses at activists - received praise from Nandan Nilekani – former Infosys chairman and the brain behind UIDAI! He was also the first chairman of the UIDAI.
Bravo, Sharad! I am sure that the indefatigable @sharads will take iSPIRT to greater heights. https://t.co/Vw9eK8VBPX
— Nandan Nilekani (@NandanNilekani) May 23, 2017
What is disheartening is this would have been an ideal opportunity for the bigwigs to redeem their troll-friendly image, but alas, nothing like that seems to have happened. Sure, Sharma may be reprimanded by a private council, but will it be anything more than a slap on the wrist?
As a Twitter user noted: This is the ideal day for all trolls to confess their crimes, because they will just receive a “bravo” and nothing more.