Fraudulent Manipulation of Aam Aadmi Party Wikipedia Pages
Fraudulent Manipulation of Aam Aadmi Party Wikipedia Pages
Report by Rakesh Raman
September 2022
How Wikipedia Is Manipulated to Hide Aam Aadmi Party Crime Reports
Most people in India know that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal is facing myriad cases of crime and corruption. One of AAP ministers Satyendar Jain is already in jail for a massive money laundering scandal.
Another AAP minister Manish Sisodia is facing multiple corruption cases while India’s top investigating agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a formal case against him in August 2022.
Sisodia is allegedly involved in a liquor scam case and corruption of hundreds of crores of rupees in the construction of classrooms in Delhi schools.
But instead of addressing public queries about their reported crimes, strangely the AAP politicians have been trying to unscrupulously divert the attention to unrelated issues. Now it appears that AAP is perhaps the only political outfit in India in which all the politicians are dishonest. (Screenshot of AAP Wikipedia page. Courtesy: Wikipedia)
It is also being increasingly observed that Kejriwal is splurging huge public money on media advertisements to gain false publicity for himself and his party and also to cover up the criminal cases of his party colleagues. There is a possibility that Kejriwal is also complicit in these crime and corruption cases.
The Right to Information (RTI) replies by the Directorate of Information and Publicity reveal that the Delhi Government’s spending on advertisements increased by a whopping 4,273% over 10 financial years ending with 2021-2022, particularly under Kejriwal’s government.
After getting advertisements from Kejriwal, most corrupt media outlets do not question AAP’s wrongdoings and the TV anchors particularly do not interject when AAP leaders divert the issues or tell flagrant lies in TV shows to evade crucial questions.
While the Kejriwal government is controlling the traditional media companies with the power of public money, it is being observed that there are attempts to suppress or remove information related to AAP’s corruption cases from new-media sites such as Wikipedia, which is a free online encyclopedia.
Manipulation of AAP Wikipedia Pages
Recently, as a Wikipedia editor, I tried to add information related to AAP’s crime and corruption cases on the AAP Wikipedia page and the Wikipedia pages of AAP politicians such as Manish Sisodia.
I followed all the Wikipedia guidelines to update AAP pages. But to my utter surprise, the information that I was adding on AAP Wikipedia was getting removed by other people.
On August 20, 2022, I raised this issue at one of Wikipedia’s discussion forums (screenshot given above) under the title “Suspect Editors” to complain that my content on AAP pages is repeatedly being removed by suspect users. Another Wikipedia editor restored the information because I was rightly updating the AAP pages with the party’s criminal cases. However, the information was again removed dishonestly.
In the Wikipedia discussion forum, another Wikipedia editor confirmed that the information on Manish Sisodia’s page is being removed surreptitiously and that editor restored the content that I had added about Sisodia’s investigations in the liquor scam case.
But the AAP sympathizer again removed the content about Sisodia’s investigations and changed it to just “Allegations” to dishonestly give a positive impression even for Sisodia’s liquor scam case. Obviously, I was stunned to find that AAP has a deep penetration even into the global cyberspace to conceal its criminal cases. Since Wikipedia works with free-wheeling processes, it is difficult to find if AAP has hired these rogue mercenaries to tamper with the truthful information about AAP’s crimes.
With the headline “Do not remove content” on AAP page, I informed other Wikipedia editors on August 18, 2022 that AAP content under the “Funding” section is being removed, although it is being taken from reliable independent media sources. I also said that another neutral editor has restored the content that I added.
But the restless AAP supporter removed the “Funding” section where I had added content related to AAP’s dubious funding and a massive campaign to highlight misuse of party funds by Kejriwal. I asserted that with the removal of truthful critical information, the AAP page is looking like a PR pamphlet. But it appears that the AAP supporters are working round the clock to remove critical content from AAP pages dishonestly.
I decided to ask the AAP about this information manipulation scandal on Wikipedia. On August 23, 2022, I sent the following email with my queries to Kejriwal.
AAP Wikipedia Information
Dear Mr. Arvind Kejriwal
Leader, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
New Delhi, India
Copy: Wikipedia for taking immediate action to protect Wikipedia from miscreants
August 23, 2022
Dear Mr. Arvind Kejriwal,
I am a journalist. As a Wikipedia editor, I have repeatedly observed some suspicious activity on the Aam Aadmi Party page as well as other pages of Aam Aadmi Party leaders on Wikipedia.
Some Wikipedia editors are either removing the critical information taken from reliable media sources or changing it forcibly to mislead the readers and keep only positive information on Aam Aadmi Party pages.
As a result, the Aam Aadmi Party pages look like publicity pamphlets on Wikipedia and defeat the very purpose of a free encyclopedia, which is supposed to provide truthful, unbiased information to readers.
With this experience, I seek your response on the following questions as I am planning to write an editorial article on the issue of deliberate information suppression on Wikipedia.
1. Has the Aam Aadmi Party or any of its partners, agencies, leaders, or supporters deployed hired workers, volunteers, or bots to tamper with, change, or remove critical information related to Aam Aadmi Party or its leaders on Wikipedia?
2. In particular, does the Aam Aadmi Party or its partners, agencies, etc. know or deploy people who operate on Wikipedia with user identities Venkat TL and Aditi Gyanesh?
3. How does the Aam Aadmi Party operate or manage its own page and the pages of its leaders or campaigns on Wikipedia?
4. Why is the crucial and current information related to Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders such as you (Arvind Kejriwal), Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Kumar Jain, and others being blocked on Wikipedia?
5. You can add any other related information from your side.
Please send me your email response to the questions given above on or before August 26, 2022.
Thank You
Rakesh Raman
[ You can click here to download the pdf of the email I sent to Kejriwal. ]
But I did not get any response from AAP or Kejriwal. Therefore, I have published this editorial report with the hope that the fraudulent manipulation of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Wikipedia pages would stop and people would know the truth about AAP and its criminal cases.
About the Author
The author of this report Rakesh Raman is a national award-winning journalist and founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation, which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
Nowadays, for the past 12 years, he has been running his own global news services on multiple news sites. He runs various environment protection, education awareness, and anti-corruption campaigns, and publishes digital magazines and research reports on different subjects. Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development.
He has approached different Indian as well as international authorities and organizations through legal petitions and advisory representations with the appeals to stop corruption and get people’s human rights and environmental rights protected with democratic reforms.
Recently, he has launched a comprehensive research project to compile an exclusive research report on corruption in India. Its working title is “India Corruption Research Report 2022 (ICRR 2022)”. He has also launched a nationwide campaign to introduce social democracy in India in order to build an egalitarian society in which all citizens could enjoy equal rights, opportunities, freedoms, and access to justice.
Rakesh has launched a public campaign which aims to get the directionless school education system in India revamped so that students could acquire contemporary skills that can help them progress in the modern information-driven world. He has launched a new editorial section / microsite “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” to cover the election news, events, and political campaigns.
In his anti-corruption activities, he participated in a global petition led by Germany-based international organization Transparency International to call for the UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption, UNGASS 2021, to direct all countries to set up central, public registers of beneficial ownership.
Rakesh has also participated in the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project for 2022 as a Country Expert for India to provide expert research inputs on multiple topics pertaining to democracy and governance. The V-Dem Project is managed by V-Dem Institute under the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
He runs a community-driven anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in housing societies where millions of people suffer because of rampant corruption and lawlessness. He has also formed an environment protection group called Green Group in New Delhi, which is the most polluted national capital in the world.
As Rakesh has been facing constant threats including death threats for his editorial and anti-corruption work, the Paris-based international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that defends freedom of journalists has urged the Indian government to save him from threats and persecution.
Contact
Rakesh Raman
Editor, RMN News Service [ Website ]
Founder, RMN Foundation [ Website ]
463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, India
WhatsApp / Mobile: 9810319059 | Contact by Email
