If Harsh Vardhan, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Delhi, is to be believed, a 19-year-old student of New York University was a part of a large Central Intelligence Agency plot to destabilise India.
At a public meeting on February 18, Vardhan asked agencies to investigate whether an American named Shimrit Lee had been appointed by the CIA to "handle" Arvind Kejriwal and others to help them form a viable national party that could overthrow the government.
“The Aam Aadmi Party will also have to tell the country about this CIA agent, this young girl called Lee, who is an NYU student, who has also researched on several Arab countries and whose papers are all available on the internet," Vardhan said. "Why did she work in this NGO called Kabir?”
Lee, now 24, visited India for three months in 2010, during which time she volunteered for two months at Kabir, a non-governmental organisation run by Manish Sisodia, who was a cabinet minister in the AAP's short-lived government in Delhi. AAP head and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is on the NGO's governing body.
While a 2012 report by the chief controller of accounts at the union ministry of home affairs concluded that the NGO’s accounts were not entirely clear and it might be possible that Sisodia had diverted some of its funds for his personal use, some have taken this further.
They believe that Kabir, and through it the AAP, is not an NGO advocating the Right to Information, but is supported by the CIA to "create an Egypt-like situation". They also claim that Lee is in fact a CIA agent who turned Sisodia and Kejriwal to anti-national activities.
So far, only one news outlet, the India News television channel, seems to have followed the story. A representative of the channel did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Lee, according to India News and certain online commenters, has since moved on to stoke the revolution in Egypt, and wants nothing more than to install a communist government in India.
Here are some representative tweets:
However, in a statement to Scroll.in, Lee strongly denied any involvement either with AAP or the CIA.
“Given the colourful allegations, it is important that I state very clearly that I did not work for Mr. Kejriwal, had never heard of him before this week and do not recall ever meeting him during my time in India,” she wrote. “My role in Kabir was to compile a comparative report on transparency and accountability laws across a number of countries.”
As to the allegation of instigating revolutions elsewhere, she said, "According to the India News Channel and the accompanying Twitter commentary, I am not only to be credited for the apparent successes of the AAP but I also had a hand in Tahrir Square, the Green Movement in Iran and the recent uprisings in the Ukraine. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to any of these places. If only graduate students had a travel budget!"
She added, “I am also not a CIA agent and do not want to be associated with an agency whose tactics I have strong moral disagreements with, though I imagine that no amount of denials will convince select Twitterers of this.”
Lee also pointed out that she had never been asked to comment on these accusations in any news report and that no fact-checking process seems to have been employed. She has been subject to virulent online abuse ever since Vardhan's speech.
Allegations always fly wildly in election season. Kejriwal says the BJP and Congress are puppets of business magnate Mukesh Ambani, while some elements in the BJP claim that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has hatched a conspiracy to convert all Indians to Christianity. With Kejriwal attempting to present the 2014 election as a battle between AAP and the BJP, the Hindutva party is simply following standard protocol by making specious claims.
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At a public meeting on February 18, Vardhan asked agencies to investigate whether an American named Shimrit Lee had been appointed by the CIA to "handle" Arvind Kejriwal and others to help them form a viable national party that could overthrow the government.
“The Aam Aadmi Party will also have to tell the country about this CIA agent, this young girl called Lee, who is an NYU student, who has also researched on several Arab countries and whose papers are all available on the internet," Vardhan said. "Why did she work in this NGO called Kabir?”
Lee, now 24, visited India for three months in 2010, during which time she volunteered for two months at Kabir, a non-governmental organisation run by Manish Sisodia, who was a cabinet minister in the AAP's short-lived government in Delhi. AAP head and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is on the NGO's governing body.
While a 2012 report by the chief controller of accounts at the union ministry of home affairs concluded that the NGO’s accounts were not entirely clear and it might be possible that Sisodia had diverted some of its funds for his personal use, some have taken this further.
They believe that Kabir, and through it the AAP, is not an NGO advocating the Right to Information, but is supported by the CIA to "create an Egypt-like situation". They also claim that Lee is in fact a CIA agent who turned Sisodia and Kejriwal to anti-national activities.
So far, only one news outlet, the India News television channel, seems to have followed the story. A representative of the channel did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Lee, according to India News and certain online commenters, has since moved on to stoke the revolution in Egypt, and wants nothing more than to install a communist government in India.
Here are some representative tweets:
However, in a statement to Scroll.in, Lee strongly denied any involvement either with AAP or the CIA.
“Given the colourful allegations, it is important that I state very clearly that I did not work for Mr. Kejriwal, had never heard of him before this week and do not recall ever meeting him during my time in India,” she wrote. “My role in Kabir was to compile a comparative report on transparency and accountability laws across a number of countries.”
As to the allegation of instigating revolutions elsewhere, she said, "According to the India News Channel and the accompanying Twitter commentary, I am not only to be credited for the apparent successes of the AAP but I also had a hand in Tahrir Square, the Green Movement in Iran and the recent uprisings in the Ukraine. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to any of these places. If only graduate students had a travel budget!"
She added, “I am also not a CIA agent and do not want to be associated with an agency whose tactics I have strong moral disagreements with, though I imagine that no amount of denials will convince select Twitterers of this.”
Lee also pointed out that she had never been asked to comment on these accusations in any news report and that no fact-checking process seems to have been employed. She has been subject to virulent online abuse ever since Vardhan's speech.
Allegations always fly wildly in election season. Kejriwal says the BJP and Congress are puppets of business magnate Mukesh Ambani, while some elements in the BJP claim that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has hatched a conspiracy to convert all Indians to Christianity. With Kejriwal attempting to present the 2014 election as a battle between AAP and the BJP, the Hindutva party is simply following standard protocol by making specious claims.