NEW DELHI: A day after facing criticism for flying business class to Dubai to receive an award, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal came under attack once again on Sunday. His opponents suspect the very award is stage managed by his supporters since there is no credible information about the company that hosts the award.
Kejriwal was adjudged Asia’s Most Inspiring and Young Social Change Maker by a global marketing agency World Brands Review Corporation (WBRC) and was announced to receive the award in the World Brands Summit in Dubai.
However, his opponents say the award story is a drama by the AAP chief and his group. One Anurag Sharma posts a message on Facebook saying no credible information on either WBRC or the World Brands Summit awards exist on Internet.
“In this age of Internet, how can there be no reference of such coveted awards,” he asks.
In response, Kejriwal’s supporters have cited the example of Frontline magazine of The Hindu group which has bagged the ‘Most Promising Brand of the Year’ award in Media & Entertainment category by WBRC.
As per a press release on Pressbox.co.uk, added on April 16, 2014, claims WBRC is a 10-year-old autonomous branding organization, represents itself as a source of information, research and analysis across the global industries. It further states to visit www.worldbrandsreview.com and www.mostpromisingbrands.com for more information.
When we tried to open the sites, it was found that both the portals are under maintenance. Further investigation about the two domains reveals that both were registered with Go Daddy.
Worldbrandsreview.com was created on January 16, 2014 and will expire on January 16, 2015. Mostpromisingbrands.com was created on December 31, 2013, updated on December 02, 2014 and will expire on December 31, 2015, with address of registrant for both domains being Bandra Kurla in Mumbai.
Now the big question is has WBRC, a global marketing firm offering coveted awards, been running without an website till 2013?
