A web design company has accused the BJP of stealing their template without giving them any credit.

An Andhra Pradesh-based web design company has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of stealing one of their templates for the party's official website, which had been down for nearly two weeks, without giving the start-up any credit. The start-up, W3Layouts, alleged that the party used their template but deliberately removed the backlink which gave the company necessary credit.

UPDATE: BJP has taken down the code from their website a day later. The party said, "It was a free to use application. Their code was dropped after they insisted on a back link, as it is not something we do in normal course. We had in fact offered to mention their name but since it didn’t find favour, we preferred to work with alternate solution. We are not using their template."

W3Layouts also alleged that the BJP also removed the code where ever W3layouts's name was mentioned when the matter was brought to its notice.

The company posted a blog on its website detailing its allegations. "We, at W3Layouts, were initially happy and excited that BJP IT cell was using our template, then devastated to see our work being used by BJP removing the backlink without paying, and giving no credit whatsoever to W3Layouts," it said in the blog.

"While the visible backlinks were removed, it was clear that BJP was still using the W3Layouts code as it was evident in the source code of the page."

The company said that when it created an archive of the BJP's website at archive.org, the matter was brought to the notice of the saffron party through Twitter. "After this, they removed the code where ever w3layouts was mentioned."

@BJP4India please ask your team to read the license terms https://t.co/1Uagn4FGjr before removing "designed by w3layouts"?

Please provide your IT Team Email id will have a word. W3layouts (@W3layouts) March 22, 2019





all we wanted was a "thanks for the template", and we would've given you the permission to remove the backlink... But instead, you decided to spoil the good looking webpage by removing our code. @BJP4India pic.twitter.com/FnBcHhFmjS W3layouts (@W3layouts) March 22, 2019

"While they may have changed the code completely now, we are surprised at how a National Political Party headed by a leader who calls himself the "Security Guard (Chowkidaar) of the country" chose to steal a small shop's sweat and blood and also chose to disregard the claim when found cheating," the company added.

The web design company posted another blog on how its previous blog, titled 'Why world's largest and India's ruling political party plagiarised our work without giving us credit?', was called propaganda on social media.

The W3Layouts's allegations also triggered criticism of the BJP on social media.

Hi @BJP4India,



Let me summarise:

- You have been hacked

- You didn’t have backups

- After 3 weeks of « maintenance » you used a free template from @W3layouts

- You plagiarised @W3layouts work without giving them credit



Shame on you!https://t.co/gskGo7aebq Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 24, 2019

I created a meme... pic.twitter.com/P8v3fAgiys John Opdenakker (@j_opdenakker) March 24, 2019

If {Object.component == isMatched color [saffron] ;

steal.object;

} Karma (@KarmaTwfits) March 24, 2019





On March 5, multiple social media users reported that the BJP's website was hacked, and shared screenshots of an unflattering meme featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The website was later taken down. The BJP is yet to respond to the allegations.