Did BJP IT cell force Snapdeal to drop Aamir Khan as brand ambassador?

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell pressurised the e-commerce platform, Snapdeal, on social media to drop Aamir Khan as their brand ambassador earlier this year, claims Swati Chaturvedi in her book, I am a Troll.

Khan, who was signed on by Snapdeal in February last year, had an extendable contract. But the site chose not to renew the contract which expired early this year.

Chaturvedi’s book alleges on the basis of statements made by a former volunteer that the Centre backs social media trolls who abuse its political opponents. The ex-BJP volunteer, Sadhavi Khosla, allegedly forwarded WhatsApp messages to Chaturvedi that would seem to support these party-endorsed cyber attacks. 

One of the alleged messages claimed that “it was time to attack Snapdeal by threatening negative publicity to get Aamir Khan kicked off”; another message led to an online petition which appealed to Snapdeal to “drop Md. Amir Khan from their ads.” This was presumably the result of Khan’s comment in support of his wife’s concern about a “growing sense of disquiet”. This had made him the target of much ire and was allegedly the reason. 

However, Arvind Gupta, the head of BJP’s IT cell, denied these allegations on the grounds that Chaturvedi was a Congress supporter and these claims were “unsubstantiated”.