New Delhi: Former Union Finance Minister and Congress MP P Chidambaram on Wednesday meddled into the controversy that arose out of an allegation of Opposition leaders many of whom belong to his own party about phone hacking attempt alerts by Apple due to purpoted snooping attempt by the BJP-led Centre questioning the intent of the government in the vexed issue.
In a post on X, he said, "It is undeniable that hundreds of Opposition leaders got an alert from Apple of a state-sponsored attempt to compromise their phones. Why only Opposition leaders? Who will be interested in compromising the phones of Opposition leaders?
Also read: As soon as Adani is touched, intelligence agencies, snooping are deployed: Rahul
After the Pegasus mystery (not resolved until this date), the finger of suspicion points to a government agency. At the moment it is only a suspicion."
The issue has gathered steam after several Opposition leaders flagged a data breach attempt by the BJP government saying they had received messages from Apple on their phones and emails. To substantiate their claims, they showed screenshots that they said came from Apple which sent a warning message on their mobile. "state-sponsored attackers may be targeting iPhones," the leaders alleged.
Congress's Shashi Tharoor, Trinamool Congress's Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi, and AAP's Raghav Chadha shared screenshots of the said messages from Apple. Thereafter, Apple, in a statement, clarified that it "does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker". It further added that "the notifications may be false alarms".
On Tuesday, Soon after reports of the Centre's snooping and alleged hacking attempt of the mobiles of opposition leaders surfaced, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP government of a Pegasus-like snooping attempt and dared to do it again on his phone.
Further, he brought a serious allegation saying as soon as Adani is touched, intelligence agencies and snooping are deployed. "Earlier, I used to think number 1 was PM Modi, number 2 is Adani and number 3 is Amit Shah, but this is wrong, number 1 is Adani, number 2 is PM Modi and number 3 is Amit Shah. We have understood the politics of India and now Adani ji cannot escape. Distraction politics is going on."
During his press conference, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi showed a copy of the warning e-mail received by several opposition leaders from their phone manufacturer about "state-sponsored attackers trying to compromise their phone".
