CPI (M): BJP must answer who authorized illegal surveillance of Indians?

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), in a statement, said that the BJP-led Central government must answer on using the Pegasus cyber software for surveillance of Indian citizens in an illegal and unauthorized manner.

New Delhi:In the backdrop of the Pegasus spyware issue, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday issued a statement seeking an answer from the BJP government on who authorised illegal surveillance of Indians. In a official statement, CPI (M) said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government must answer and come clean on using the Pegasus cyber software for the surveillance of Indian citizens in an illegal and unauthorized manner.

"Very concerning information has emerged on the Government of India procuring the Pegasus spyware from an Israeli firm, NSO, the worldwide leader in cyber-surveillance. NSO has categorically clarified that it deals only with “vetted” governments. These investigations reveal a large number of journalists and human rights activists have been targeted for hacking their smartphones for surveillance. Globally more than 50,000 instances concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the NSO has surfaced. Among the countries mentioned is India in the company of Rwanda, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Mexico etc," the statement read.

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Citing a report, the CPI (M) said, “In India, the numbers of phones belonging to hundreds of journalists, activists, opposition politicians, government officials and business executives were on the snooping list”. Reports in Indian media have named at least 40 journalists who are under surveillance of this spy software, Pegasus, the party claimed.

"Two years ago, the CPI (M) had raised in Parliament that this dangerous spyware was being used in India as revealed by WhatsApp. The Modi government’s response had not categorically denied that it engaged the services of NSO but claimed that there is no unauthorized surveillance," it added.

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The Communist Party of India (Marxist), further said, "With these revelations, it is clear that this government has engaged NSO for such surveillance against its own citizens," adding that the 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 this.

Taking a dig at the Centre, the party stated that the use of cyber spy software to hack smartphones even by the government is prohibited under Indian laws. "Under what law has the government undertaken such surveillance activities over citizens? The 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 CPI (M) stated.

Terming the act as an 'unacceptable level of authoritarianism employing fascistic methods' the party said that earlier instances of hacking smartphones and computers of human rights activists have been exposed where the material was digitally planted on their devices and it is then used for their arrests under draconian laws. "The `snoop, plant, arrest’ formula employed by this BJP government is a violation of the fundamental rights of Indian citizens," the CPI (M) claimed.

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