Kalam's digital assets stolen; brother, 101, seeks govt help
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Kochi: As millions of followers of ‘People’s President’ Dr A P J Abdul Kalam observe his third death anniversary on July 27, his family has launched a fight to get back the stolen Twitter and FB accounts.
Onmanorama has accessed a letter Kalam’s elder brother APJ Mohamed Muthu Meera Maraikayar has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 23.
In the two-page letter, Maraikayar seeks the PM’s intervention to retrieve the followers, tweets and posts of former president’s official Twitter handle @apjabdulkalam and FB page.
The family says the said Twitter handle has been changed and all followers have been migrated to another account @KalamCenter by Srijan Pal Singh, a former part-time worker with the ex-president, whose residence is christened 'House of Kalam'.
Letters have also been sent to the defence minister, home minister, IT minister and defence secretary to name a few in the Modi government, seeking their assistance to protect the stolen legacy of the Missile Man.
Kalam's missing digital assets has been a concern for 'House of Kalam' for the last three years and the family had made many attempts through various official channels to retrieve them.
Many misusing the name
In the letter to the PM, the family pointed out that their legal team has found that many organisations and individuals are misusing the former president’s name and some even collecting donations using this.
“The family's legal team has informed us that there are hundreds of organisations in India with Dr Kalam's name. We constantly get queries from people from different parts of India asking about the authenticity of these organisations. A Delhi-based organisation -- Kalam Centre -- run by Srijan Pal Singh, who was a freelance assistant with Dr Kalam, has been misusing his name and his office ever since Dr Kalam's demise. He has been communicating to people saying that he was an OSD & Advisor (Tech and Policy) to Dr Kalam, while no such post existed. We understand that the organisation has been receiving funding from many agencies,” the letter said.
Kalam's family had asked Singh to hand over the access of Dr Kalam's official Twitter account and Facebook account. “After his demise he migrated all the followers to Kalam Centre account without our permission. This happened after we asked him to hand over the operating rights of the original handle. He handed over the original account with just 27 followers after migrating millions of followers. It has just over 1,000 followers now. The family was keen to preserve all thoughts of Dr Kalam that was tweeted. Now, all those are missing,” the letter added.
The family has pooled in all resources under the Dr Abdul Kalam International Foundation headquartered at Rameswaram, spearheading all missions from under one roof. "In this context, the family seeks your advice and help to restore the legacy of Dr Kalam that is being misused by many, including some who had worked with him full time and part-time. We would seek your immediate help in restoring his digital assets that has been misused now. Looking forward with hope that you will take some action at the earliest so that millions of Dr Kalam's followers are not duped by a few. We will continue to work for the progress of this nation by fulfilling the dreams and desires of Dr Kalam,” the letter to the PM stated.
We want peace
“We are a peace-loving family. We cannot tolerate anyone misusing Dr Kalam’s legacy. We have heard from many that his name is used to collect funds by a former intern who worked with him. This is a serious offence. His name can’t be misused. We are hurt and we hope the government will step in and retrieve all the missing digital accounts of Dr Kalam and hand over to us,” Sheik Dawood, grand nephew of Dr Kalam told Onmanorama over phone from Rameswaram on Friday.
He said the family will wait for the government’s response before taking up the next course of action. “All through his life Dr Kalam stayed away from controversies. The family and the Foundation too are following his footsteps. We waited for three years thinking that people would stop misusing his name. Can we keep quiet when a former President’s name is being misused by a few of his former aides for their survival?” Asks Sheik, a software engineer.
When asked why the family did not react to these digital thefts in the last three years, Sheik said they had other issues to sort out.“The family had to look into other pressing issues, including the construction of a memorial for him. Now, the time has come for us to get back all his digital assets. We are banking on the government,” he added.
Real versus fake
The migrated Twitter account of the former president now has over 1.8 million followers and the original handle just over 1,000. His migrated FB page (https://www.facebook.com/kalamcentre/) has now two million followers.
Interestingly, another FB account (https://www.facebook.com/kalamBillionbeats/?ref=br_rs ) of Dr Kalam’s e-paper Billion Beats is under the control of a former aide, who was a former employee of Aeronautical Development Agency. This account has close to 5 lakh followers.
The former president is said to have launched Billion Beats, an e-paper, to capture the success stories of unsung heroes and ordinary Indians, on November 14, 2007.
House of Kalam now says they were forced to start another FB page for Billion Beats (https://www.facebook.com/BillionBeatsOfficial/) which has just over 1,200 followers. “Billion Beats is a copyrighted name and registered digital asset of House of Kalam now. We have a separate website (www.billionbeats.in) running for the past one year. We will take up the issue of retrieving the original FB page of Billion Beats as well. The page name seems to have also been changed by his former aide,” Sheik said.
All original Twitter and FB accounts of the former president now carry the verified tag (blue tick mark), while those owned by the family lack that. “The family is supposed to protect and carry ahead his legacy. I hope Twitter and FB will realise the mistakes and take action. We are sure the government will help us in this regard,” Shiek said.
Reacting to the allegations raised by Kalam's brother, Srijan Pal Singh, while talking to Onmanorama on phone, denied any wrongdoing and termed all charges false. He claimed that the Facebook account he maintains was a private account he started during his stint with the former president. He was not very clear about the Twitter account details. About the complaint, he said he has nothing to do with all these allegations. He also refused to send a clarification mail to Onmanorama.
Digital laws in India are not stringent enough and lack the teeth to nail offenders and this is the trigger for rampant cyber violations which often go unchecked.