BJP accuses Congress of ‘.com job’, casts legal net

BJP accused Congress on Sunday of using a commercial domain to serve a political purpose in cyber space.

Party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said the ruling Congress had committed a fraud by floating www.bjp.com that automatically directs users to the All India Congress Committee website. Calling it a “pickpocket-like theft”, she said the website was a crude attempt to rob BJP of its identity.

“We want to uncover the persons behind this operation,” Sitharaman told reporters, adding that a legal notice had been served on Congress.

She said ww.bjp.com was apparently run by Bharat Journals and Publications and listed some US telephone numbers. “It is well-known that political parties do not use .com as it denotes commercial operations. But a lot of party supporters were annoyed on the Ayodhya judgment day as they were misled by this site,” Sitharaman said.

Congress was unfazed. The party’s Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Shukla, himself a mediaperson, dismissed the allegation as baseless. “Why should the party indulge in any such activity?” he said.