‘Was Asked to Smear Atishi,’ Says Woman; BJP Calls it ‘Gimmick’

In a Facebook post, a woman has alleged that Gambhir’s team had asked her agency to script a video to ‘smear’ Atishi

BJP and AAP’s East Delhi candidates, Gautam Gambhir and Atishi.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

In a fresh turn of events in the pamphlet row involving Atishi and Gautam Gambhir, a woman has now alleged, in a Facebook post, that the agency that she works for was asked to design a smear campaign against the AAP’s East Delhi candidate.

Speaking to The Quint, the woman, who identifies herself as Guneet Kaur on Facebook, said that about a week ago, her company was asked given the brief to make three videos, one of which was supposed to ‘smear’ Atishi.

Asked if the instructions came from the BJP, she said the person who got in touch ‘was close to Gambhir’.

“...my agency got work from Gambhir to make 3 videos for him, 2 highlighting his achievements and social work, and the third, to smear Atishi, or as my boss put it, “Atishi ko girana hai (sic),” Guneet wrote in her Facebook post.

The post goes on to narrate that she declined to script the video involving Atishi. She, however, claims in the post that “smearing Atishi was definitely a part of their poll campaign strategy”, something she reiterated speaking to The Quint.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

Guneet declined to name her company to The Quint even as on her Facebook profile, Guneet states that she works for a company named ‘Media network Pvt Ltd’.

Her company had earlier too, received a contract for making a campaign video for Gambhir, Guneet told The Quint.

‘AAP’s Gimmick,’ Says BJP

The BJP, meanwhile, has denied the claims, calling them ‘AAP’s gimmick’.

“We did not hire any agency for Gambhir’s campaign and all our content was designed in-house. Everyday AAP is coming up with a new gimmick. The elections are over and they will see the result on the 23rd,” Praveen Shankar Kapoor, Delhi BJP’s spokesperson said, speaking to The Quint.

Kapoor was also in-charge of Gambhir’s campaign.

Earlier in the day, both Atishi and Gambhir fielded questions by The Quint, on the controversy.

“This kind of discourse is commonplace with the BJP. On social media, this kind of language is used everyday by the BJP trolls. Their leaders have used this sort of language on camera. So, there is no need of any more proof from our end,” Atishi said.

Gambhir, on the other hand, declined to escalate the matter any further. When asked by The Quint if the controversy would affect his support base, the cricketer-turned-politician said, “We will get to know on the 23rd (May).”

The Controversy

On 9 May, the AAP made public a pamphlet carrying derogatory remarks about Atishi. The pamphlet says that Atishi is a “good example of mixed breed,” was married to a “beef eater” and that she was “caught red-handed while having sex in a compromising position with another teacher.”

AAP alleged that Gambhir was behind the smear campaign and had distributed the offensive pamphlet, following which Gambhir sent a defamation notice to Atishi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.

Meanwhile, Atishi has also filed a complaint with the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) over the ‘derogatory and casteist’ pamphlet.