Now, a parallel IAC

New faction running unauthorised information outlet, says it is neutral, not personality-oriented

The office of India Against Corruption’s Arvind Kejriwal has seen a coup of sorts, and those behind it, possibly sympathisers of Anna Hazare, claim to represent IAC headquarters. They also term IAC, in its current form, as the Arvind faction.

The new faction, which says it is neutral, not personality-oriented, is running a parallel and unauthorised information outlet. This group is leaking internal information to the list of email addresses available with IAC. It has sent replies, which it claims are Kejriwal’s, to various sections — from Congress leader Digvijay Singh to those in the media.

Ajay Dixit, the man behind the new faction, says he has already replied to seven of the 27 questions posed by Digvijay Singh to Kejriwal, which the latter had refused to reply to. Dixit has said he will mail the remaining replies tomorrow. This prompted Kejriwal to deny replies to the questions were his. He added someone was misusing IAC email address.

The apparent goal of the new faction seems to be control over the IAC data base and using it for the benefit of all supporters of the movement, not just the Arvind faction.

IAC’s official spokesperson Aswathy Muralidharan described Dixit as a “hacker”. She did not comment on whether it was a case of defection in the camp.

Dixit has, however, justified the usurping of the IAC data base, saying this resulted from “certain recent developments within the IAC movement and certain cyber hacking incidents…(it also resulted from) the development of the Arvind camp to establish a political party, which many IAC workers/volunteers do not support. It is clarified this mailing list is neutral, and does not take sides between workers”.

Dixit adds his mailing list would only transmit official and semi-official emails on policy, operations or policy development for the IAC movement or on information/news issues that were urgent in nature. “Because inner democracy has been suppressed for so long at IAC, owing to personality-based activities, a healthy outpouring of appreciation and criticism of IAC has taken place on this list in past two days,” read one of Dixit’s mails.

Justifying the mails sent to Hum Janenge and similar networks, Dixit said these were aimed at transparency. Free discussions were encouraged in these forums to ensure there were no personality cults in IAC, he said in a mail.