Pegasus spyware issue: Opposition slams Centre over alleged phone-tapping, seeks probe

Opposition parties Monday hit out at the government over the alleged phonetapping of prominent personalities in the country using Israeli Pegasus spyware and demanded an independent judicial or parliamentary committee probeAn international media consortium reported Sunday that more than 300 verified mobile phone numbers including of two serving ministers over 40 journalists three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to government agenciesCongress leader Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter using the hashtag PegasusWe know what hes been reading everything on your phone Gandhi wrote Monday as a tweetreply to his own post two days ago in which he had asked people Im wondering what you guys are reading these daysAlso Read Congress asks if Pegasus scandal happened in Maharashtra demands probeThe government has however dismissed allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part saying the accusation has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoeverIT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Lok Sabha that with several checks and balances being in place any sort of illegal surveillance by unauthorised persons is not possible in IndiaTerming it a very serious issue concerning national security Congress leader Shashi Tharoor demanded an independent judicial or parliamentary committee probeSince the government has said that it has not done any snooping this should be probed he saidI feel that there should be a thorough independent judicial inquiry or a joint parliamentary committee We cannot just brush it under the carpet he told reportersHe raised the issue through social media tooGoI has denied resorting to unauthorised surveillance The question this raises is if Pegasus is only sold to governments which other govts ChinaPak are using it to snoop on prominent Indian citizens Shouldnt the authorities call for an independent investigation he tweeted referring to the Government of IndiaThe CPIM said that two years ago the party had raised in Parliament that this dangerous spyware was being used in India as revealed by WhatsAppThe Modi governmentrsquos response had not categorically denied that it engaged the services of NSO the Israeli tech firm that created the spyware but claimed that there is no unauthorized surveillance With these revelations it is clear that this government has engaged NSO for such surveillance against its own citizens the party said in a statement MondayThe Central government must come clean on what is its engagement with NSO what are the terms and how much our public funds have been paid for thisrdquo the party demandedUnder Indian laws the use of cyber spy software to hack smartphones even by the government is prohibited the party said asking under what law the government has undertaken such surveillance activities over citizensThe right to privacy is a fundamental right as laid down by the Supreme Court but this BJP government is prevaricating on legislating the privacy law the party saidThe CPIM also said there have been earlier instances of hacking smartphones and computers of human rights activists and they have been exposed It alleged that the spying toll is digitally planted on their devicesIt is then used for their arrests under draconian laws The snoop plant arrestrsquo formula employed by this BJP government is a violation of the fundamental rights of Indian citizensrdquo the CPIM saidThe TMC said it will raise the issue in parliamentIt is a serious issue and the minister in his statement in the House does not deny that the government was using the software We will raise this issue in Parliament said TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek OBrienThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever