Cambridge Analytica’s parent firm in Indian politics since 2003
The company would advise parties on caste, was closely involved in several elections
LONDON: Strategic Communications Limited, the parent company of the controversial political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, has been active in Indian elections since at least 2003, advising parties on issues such as caste and running the campaigns of candidates for Lok Sabha and state elections.
Examples of the work the company has done in India were revealed by whistle-blower Christopher Wylie on Twitter on Wednesday as well as to the British Parliament’s digital, culture, media and sports committee, which heard his evidence on various issues on Tuesday.
The committee was due to release a cache of documents Wylie has submitted to substantiate his revelations about the misuse of data by CA in elections in several countries, including the 2016 referendum in the UK on leaving the European Union.
SCL, formed in 1993, was involved in assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh (2003), Rajasthan (2003), Uttar Pradesh (2007) and Bihar (2010), and the Lok Sabha election of 2009. It undertook caste-related political work in Uttar Pradesh in 2011 and 2012.
Three pages of SCL documents posted by Wylie on Twitter mostly do not identify the political parties, but mention the Janata Dal-united in the case of the 2010 assembly election in Bihar. In other examples of its projects in India, the documents only mention “a national party” or a “major state party”.
SCL states in the documents that it managed the campaigns of “a number of Lok Sabha candidates” in the 2009 election. All work was attributed to SCL, which formed CA in 2013. Wylie said during his deposition that he was employed by SCL.
The documents state SCL’S head office is at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, with offices in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune. The documents highlight the company’s research and analysis related to caste.
The company says it undertook a research communication campaign in 2007 in Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh “to support a trans-national programme for countering of Non-desired Behaviour of recruitment into, and support of, violent jihadism”, but does not state on whose behalf it ran the campaign.
SCL also undertook psephological studies and behavioural polling in Delhi and Chattisgarh.
The UK parliamentary committee announced on Wednesday that Alexander Nix, the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica will give evidence in a public session likely to take place on April 17. He previously gave evidence to the committee as part of its inquiry into ‘fake news’ on February 27.
The committee has also written to Facebook to request that Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, appears to give evidence on April 24.
The committee said it believes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to be the right person to give evidence, has requested that he clarify whether he will make himself available.