- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian National Congress, India’s main opposition party, on Saturday (29) lashed out at the Narendra Modi government saying it fooled the parliament and the Supreme Court, hijacked democracy and indulged in treason, after a media report in the United States claimed that India bought the Pegasus spyware from Israel as part of a defence deal in 2017.
The New York Times said in a report the Israeli spyware Pegasus and a missile system were the “centerpieces” of a roughly $2 billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between India and Israel in 2017 when Modi visited that country.
The Congress said it intends to raise the issue in the budget session starting next week and seek accountability from prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party on the floor of the parliament.
The grand-old party urged the apex court of the country to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and initiate appropriate penal proceedings against the Modi government for trying to “deceive” it deliberately.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the government of treason by “tapping” phones of the opposition leaders, armed forces and the judiciary with the help of the Pegasus software.
“The Modi Government bought Pegasus to spy on our primary democratic institutions, politicians and public. Government functionaries, opposition leaders, armed forces, judiciary all were targeted by these phone tappings. This is treason,” he said on Twitter.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the Modi government “deceived” the Parliament as well as “duped” the Supreme Court of India.
He said with things being clear now, the role of the prime minister and his responsibility is now directly in question.
“We will seek accountability from the prime minister on the floor of the Parliament along with that of the government in the people’s court,” the Congress leader said.
“We will urge upon the Supreme Court to suo motu now take note and issue appropriate penal proceedings against this government for attempting to deliberately and knowingly deceive the Supreme Court,” Surjewala said, adding that “deception” with the top court is nothing short of perjury.
The shadow of the Pegasus issue looms large again over the 2022 budget session. Last year, the entire monsoon session was washed out after the opposition had jointly stalled the proceedings over the issue.
