Reacting for the first time after the BJP portal went into the “maintenance” mode, the party’s IT cell head said that the site was down due to a “technical glitch”, not hacking

Soon after the BJP website became inaccessible on Tuesday, social media was abuzz with screenshots of a meme featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Below the meme was a music video of the film “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

The website of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was hacked on Tuesday morning and was still down, did experience some sort of “transgression”, the party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya said on Wednesday.

Reacting for the first time after the BJP portal went into the “maintenance” mode, the party’s IT cell head said that the site was down due to a “technical glitch”, not hacking.

“We are not filing any FIR with the police as the site is down only due to a technical glitch. We are trying to resolve the issue and hopefully it will be up by tonight or tomorrow,” BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya told IANS in New Delhi.

Malviya, however, admitted that the website did experience some sort of “transgression”.

The portal was not up and the message on the website read: “We’ll be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. We will be back online shortly!”

Soon after the website became inaccessible on Tuesday, social media was abuzz with screenshots of a meme featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Below the meme was a music video of the film “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

The meme poked fun at a clip in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks past Modi as he extends his hand.

French security researcher who goes by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson tweeted: “The official website of @BJP4India has been hacked. I guess they stole the database too.”

The opposition immediately took up the issue on the social media platforms. “If you’re not looking at the BJP website right now — you’re missing out,” tweeted Divya Spandana, social media head of the Congress party.