Suddenly, everyone has a spicy story to tell about the working of Lutyens' Delhi ‒ and they're crowding Twitter with rumour, gossip and pure speculation. Friday saw an explosion of Twitter handles claiming to spill the secrets of New Delhi's politicians, bureaucrats and journalists, all of which seemed to pay tribute to the long-dead British architect who designed the precinct sandstone offices and whitewashed bungalows in which India's powerbrokers live and work.

The trend was set off on October 17, when a Twitter account called Lutyens' Spice made an appearance, claiming to be "Lutyens' official gossip channel". It gathered more than 10,000 followers in a week.


On October 24, evidently irritated at the perception Lutyens' Spice was airing rumours that were undermining the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, another handle called Lutyens' Masala emerged, ostensibly created by a "retired right wing hack who now operates from a Lutyens' living room".

But rather than retailing gossip about politicians, Lutyens' Masala seemed more interested in tarnishing the reputations of journalists it views as liberal.

Over the next few hours, every table of every Khan Market restaurant seemed to be occupied by a potential gossipmonger. The emergence of Lutyens Insider ("Journalist. Political beat. Burdened by peer pressure not to reveal true self") was immediately countered by allegations that the person running the account was a right-winger who had previously sent out obscene messages to liberals under the pseudonym @thehinduexpress.


Lutyens' Report said that the person behind it likes "to ask tough questions", adding, "Truth wins."

A rash of handles using the word "spice" also cropped up. BJPSpice claimed it would be the "source of Right Wing stories which never get printed" and that it would "spill beans on both sides".


Then there was Journalists' Spice, "journalists' official gossip channel".

One handle decided to focus its interests more specifically on Raisina Hill, where the offices of the defence, finance, home ministries are located.


All of this was ripe for parody, of course, and that's exactly what happened.


To be honest, much of the information being battered around is boring or plain wrong, going by the purported revelations about Scroll that have emerged. More interesting, though, is the speculation about who exactly is behind the various handles.

On Saturday morning, Lutyens' Spice attempted to wrest back its first-mover advantage by claiming to reveal the identities of the people at Lutyens' Masala.

Watch this space for more.