Reacting to Cambridge Analytica whisteblower's testimony, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday lambasted Congress president Rahul Gandhi for ''data theft and trying to manipulate voters'' and said he owes an apology to the nation.
"Cambridge Analytica is in the dock for data theft and trying to manipulate voters using unlawful means. It has been established that Congress was a client of Cambridge Analytica. Congress Party needs to apologise to the nation for data theft and trying to manipulate voters," Prasad posted on Twitter.
Prasad said the whistleblower's testimony vindicated what BJP has been saying from the past few weeks that the Congress party had to influence voters.
"Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie has accepted before British Parliamentary committee that Cambridge Analytica worked for the Congress Party.This vindicates what we have been saying from day one. Rahul Gandhi has been trying to divert attention all these while," he said.
"Rahul Gandhi needs to apologise to the nation for trying to subvert India’s election process using the Brahmastra of Cambridge Analytica. The nation demands an answer!," he added.
In sensation revelation in data breach case, Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie on Tuesday named Congress as 'client in India'.
Deposing before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the UK Parliament, Wylie said: "I believe their [CA’s] client was Congress, but I know that they’ve done all kinds of projects both regionally…I don’t remember a national project, I know regionally."
"I mean India is so big, one state could be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff there. I believe I have some documentation on India which I can also provide to the committee," he told the British Lawmakers.
Last week, the government had issued notice to Cambridge Analytica, the firm at the centre of Facebook users' data breach, seeking its response by March 31 on whether it was involved in misuse of data to profile Indians and influence their voting behaviour.
The notice also sought the company's response on the entities which engaged Cambridge Analytica, the method used by it for possession of data and whether consent was taken from users.
