Editors Guild slams BJP IT cell chief

BJP's information technology head Amit Malviya was under fire over a social media poll targeting senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.

Malviya had conducted an opinion poll on Twitter in which he had asked whether Sardesai should handle the public relations for ISIS.

The Editors Guild of India slammed Malviya for conducting the “McCarthyist social media poll” on Sardesai.

“The Editors Guild of India has noted with deep dismay and concern the deplorable act of Amit Malviya, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Information Technology cell, in which he conducted an offensive, McCarthyist social media ‘poll’ on noted journalist Rajdeep Sardesai,” the Guild said in a statement here.

“The poll on Twitter was not only tasteless, it also questioned the integrity and patriotism of Mr Sardesai, who is a journalist of standing and a former President of the Editors Guild of India,” the statement said.

The poll also drew criticism from netizens and political leaders alike.

“This kind of exercise is a disgrace coming from the spokesman of a supposedly national party. But the nation has realised they are the foremost anti-national party. Incapable of appreciating anyone but yes-men,” senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said.