Priyadarshan Pathak, Websol Media, Railway Road, Gurgaon
According to Priyadarshan Pathak, Facebook is the best media available for promotion. The biggest benefit of Facebook is that you can categorize the likings of the individuals who visit the page. Although Twitter is not a paid service as Facebook is, yet Pathak can get us packages of followers: “Toh dekhiye Twitter ka kya hai ki Twitter ka kahin paid services filhal nahin hai … agar humein operate bhi karna hai toh US se karna hota hai … toh main unse packages mangwa sakta hoon ki followers ke packages wahan se mujhe bhej dein wo (The problem with Twitter is that it does not have any paid service … if we want to operate it we will have to operate it from the US … I will ask them to send us packages of followers).”
His company is also handling, we are informed, Narendra Modi’s campaign on social media.
Pathak says he would assign our netaji’s campaign to a Congress baiter who is a die-hard Modi fan: “Main aise bande ko aapke ispe lagaoonga … wo Congress se bahut wo hai … matlab khilaf hai (I will get a fellow on this project of yours … who hates Congress …).” A dentist by profession, this fellow generates about 2000 likes a day on his page. Pathak promptly shows us pages created by his friend of various BJP luminaries, and calls him up asking him to come over to meet us.
Nothing wrong is allowed to show up on our Facebook page as they would set certain parameters on the page. Pathak claims: “Jo banda yahan baitha rahega na wo humesha … agar ye kuch karta hai na toh wo humesha kisi ne kya comment diya hai … kuch galat diya hai toh turant wahan se remove karega (the fellow who sits here will always … he observes what kind of comments the fellows have written … if there is some mal-comment is given he will remove it immediately).”
Pathak would launch an attack on Netaji’s opponent a few days before election, using a different tool, a dongal as a static IP, to avoid detection. He can do negative campaign from abroad, as well: “Aap chahen toh bahar se bhi karwa sakte hain …bahar se b hi karwa dete hain … bahar ki IP se bhi karwa dete hain (If you wish, we can get done from abroad as well … will get it done from abroad … will get done using an overseas IP).”
This would be done by hacking an offshore system with the help of Team Viewer software: “… Team Viewer software sabpe daala hua hai … usmein kya hota hai ki jaise bahar se koi mail aaya toh us client ka computer humare system pe aa jaata hai … humare iss pe aa gaya … hum kya karenge yahan par … hum uske system pe chahe jo bhi open kar sakte hain jo bhi chahein wahan pe chala sakte hain … toh hum yahi karte hain (… every computer is equipped with Team Viewer software … what happens there is suppose we receive a mail from a client abroad … his computer appears on our system … we get it on our system … what will we do here … whatever we want we can open on his system … whatever we want to run we can run there … this is what we do).”
Then, he will write all nasty things about the opponent. It is safe and hassle free when he is not using his IP address: “Wo band karne ki bhi zaroorat nahin hai kyonki humara IP yahan se type hi nahin hua … haan … mujhse kya keh rahe ho jaaka pakdo usse (No need to close it down because we have not typed our IP … [in case someone comes calling on us, I will tell them] … yes … why bother me … go and catch that fellow).”
He would send bulk sms using soft code which makes it difficult to trace.
Netaji’s opponent will be attacked both on Facebook and on Twitter, in a similar way, as he says: “Usmein hum kya karenge ki hum … usmein jo bhi pratikriya … uske baare mein jo bhi dikhana hai wo hum bahar se dikhayenge (What we will do for that … whatever the reaction … whatever we have to show about him we will do it from outside).” This will be done through a different company: “Dono ka alag alag company se karaoonga … positive ka alag company se … negative ka alag company se (I will get both done from different companies … positive will be done by a different company … negative will be done by another company).”
We meet Pathak again to see if he is able to deliver what he is promising after asking him to throw all the muck on a fictitious company, Mercury Aviation, and he does not disappoint.