I’m not sure what the big deal is about phones being hacked by governments around the world. Apparently, the phone numbers of over 40 Indian journalists appeared on a leaked list of potential targets for surveillance. There were forensic tests conducted, confirming that these individuals were snooped upon by an unidentified agency using something called Pegasus spyware. No one knows who initiated this surveillance, obviously, because the government of India clearly says it didn’t and I have always believed the government of India.

The government of India isn’t lying because it has never lied to us. Yes, we were promised a lot of money in our bank accounts, the return of public wealth from tax havens abroad, lower prices of fuel and cooking gas, checks on inflation, more transparency in how taxpayer money would be used, greater accountability, and the return of good days that we didn’t even know were missing. If none of these things actually came to pass, it is our fault for being unnecessarily optimistic, not the government’s.