- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
LEADERS of the Opposition parties in India on Monday (19) hit out at the Narendra Modi government over the ‘Pegasus’ snooping report ahead of the monsoon session of the parliament starting the same day.
On Sunday (18), Indian online news portal ‘The Wire’ reported that at least 300 Indian phone numbers, including those of over 40 senior journalists, opposition leaders, government officials and rights activists were discovered on a leaked database of targets for hacking that used ‘Pegasus’, an Israeli spyware.
ALSO READ: Modi asks parties to ask government sharpest questions in parliament
Former president of the Indian National Congress, the main opposition party, Rahul Gandhi was among the first to take a dig at prime minister Modi over the report. “We know what he’s been reading- everything on your phone,” Gandhi tweeted.
Binoy Viswam, a Communist Party of India member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the parliament, gave a suspension notice under rule 267 over revelations of the scale of the spyware. Sanjay Singh, a parliamentarian from the Aam Aadmi party, also submitted a notice in the Rajya Sabha seeking suspension to discuss the sensational issue.
“The tentacles of the spy state have come to ministers, judges, journalists, and opposition leaders. History of fascism says that out of their own fear complex, fascists go to any extent. I will give notice in Parliament for adjournment motion,” Viswam, who is the leader of the CPI in Rajya Sabha, was quoted saying by The Indian Express.
Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma sought a judicial probe into the snooping under the Supreme Court’s supervision. He called it “state surveillance”.
“This matter has to be raised. It’s state surveillance. It is a very, very serious issue. It compromises the very system of constitutional democracy and the privacy of the citizens. The government cannot get away by saying that they have to verify and all. These are serious issues. Which are the agencies that got the malware? Which are the agencies which bought Pegasus? This is not something that the government can run away from,” Sharma was quoted by the Express.
The government has rejected the charges of snooping on prominent citizens, saying the allegations of surveillance on specific people have no concrete basis or truth in it. Responding to the media’s query on snooping of prominent citizens, additional secretary, electronics and information technology, Rajendra Kumar, said, “India is a robust democracy that is committed to ensuring the right to privacy to all its citizens as a fundamental right. In furtherance of this commitment, it has also introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, to protect the personal data of individuals and to empower users of social media platforms.”
The alleged use of the software was reported on by news outlets like the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and others who collaborated on a probe into a data leak, agencies reported. The reports claimed that 50,000 were identified as potential targets of the surveillance. It was said that not all of those numbers were hacked and those news outlets having access to the reported leak said more details about those who were compromised would be released in the near future.
The reports also said that those on the leaked list of potential targets from India included journalists in news outlets like The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Wire, The Indian Express, India Today and others besides freelancers, columnists and a number of regional media.
