Hyderabad: The spyware Pegasus allegedly spied on some of the top opposition leaders, journalists and businessmen in the country is bound to have far reaching reverberations that will corner the government not just in Parliament but most likely the matters might end up in courts. Going by a conservative estimate over 300 Indians are on the target of surveillance including two Cabinet ministers, three opposition leaders, government officials, 40 journalists among others are under the surveillance.
The leaked database was accessed by Paris-based media nonprofit stories and Amnesty International and shared with many leading publications as part of the collaborative investigation called the Pegasus Project.
Among the politicians, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and five of his close confidantes were potential targets of spyware Pegasus. Gandhi confessed to a web portal that he did receive suspicious WhatsApp messages and hence changed numbers and cell phones to avoid possible spying.
The entire operation now seems solidifying as new evidence emerges to the fore. The said spyware Pegasus is sold by NSO Group — an Israeli company — to (only) governments around the world; not to private operators. This suspicion is further fuelled by the Modi government’s dogged refusal to respond to any query from the Pegasus Project to answer whether or not it uses Spyware Pegasus.
What has now emerged as an irrefutable corroboration is Rahul Gandhi's cell phone was under surveillance when he was the opposition leader in 2019, and raised many uncomfortable questions including Rafael deal among others. At least going by the list provided by Amnesty International’s technical lab the presence of Pegasus spyware in as many as 37 instruments, 10 of which are used in India.
“Targeted surveillance of the type you describe whether in regard to me, other leaders of the opposition or indeed any law-abiding citizen of India is illegal and deplorable," Gandhi told a web portal that spearheaded the probe in India, adding, "If your information is correct, the scale and nature of surveillance you describe goes beyond an attack on the privacy of individuals. It is an attack on the democratic foundations of our country. It must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be identified and punished.”
Union Minister for IT Ashwini Vaishnaw rubbished media charges saying, "The allegation is that individuals linked to these phone numbers are being spied upon. However, the report says that the presence of a phone number in the data does not reveal whether it was a device infected by Pegasus or subjected to an attempted hack." True, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to swallow these not-so-convincing words merely because it comes from the IT minister.
Surely, the government has much to explain about the undemocratic goings on if there's any truth in spyware Pegasus hacking of personal phones. The severity of the matter does not end here. Without doubt it's an assault on India that should be taken with all seriousness.
