By Venkatesh Raghavan
Government accused of cyber war against public functionaries
New Delhi: The leaked reports of use of spyware Pegasus for illegal surveillance against public figures including a Supreme Court judge, over 40 Indian journalists, ministers in the union cabinet and opposition leaders created a ruckus in both Houses of Parliament on the opening day of the Monsoon Session today. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day and will reconvene at 11am tomorrow.
In fact today both Houses saw uproarious scenes from the Opposition, who vociferously protested against the rising fuel prices, the government’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, besides the Pegasus hack media report. An adjournment motion moved by Shiromani Akali Dal demanding repeal of three farm laws was rejected.
In Lok Sabha the Prime Minister could hardly get through with the formality of introducing the newly inducted ministers in his cabinet to the House. Introducing his ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I thought that there would be enthusiasm in the Parliament as so many women, Dalits, tribals have become Ministers. This time our colleagues from agricultural and rural background, OBC community, have been given berth in Council of Ministers. Perhaps some people are not happy if country’s women, OBCs, farmers’ sons become Ministers. That is why they don’t even allow their introduction.”
Soon afterwards, Union Home minister Amit Shah, Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi, leader of the Upper House, Piyush Goyal and Shiv Pratap Shukla went into the huddle mode to chalk out an early damage control mode.
The new IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who was fending for the government that was pressed with charges of using Israeli spyware Pegasus against ministers, opposition leaders and journalists was faced with a funny irony, with the Washington Post naming him in the list of ministers whose phones were in the database of the spyware. Pointing out at the timing of the media outcry on usage of spyware, Vaishnaw said, “This cannot be a coincidence. They have hit out just one day before parliament commences its monsoon session.”
The spyware is reportedly offered by the Israeli company only to “vetted governments” and none others qualify to become its clients. In the face of mounting outrage from the opposition benches, in the Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw asserted, “Checks and balances are already in place to ensure data safety norms in our country. Thereby no illegal surveillence is possible.” Both houses of parliament were witness to uproarious scenes amidst the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to introduce the new ministers who had been inducted into his cabinet and subsequently adjourned. Vaishnaw also pointed out that there had been a previous instance when such accusations were hurled at the users of WhatsApp. “However, the allegations stood rejected by all political parties concerned,” he repeated.
Strongly refuting the media allegations, the minister deplored the attempts to cast aspersions on Indian democracy and its established institutions. In addition to Vaishnaw, The Washington Post also named his cabinet colleague Prahlad Singh Patel, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and veteran election strategist Prashant Kishor. Web news portal, The Wire in a recent report mentioned the list in the spyware database included a sitting judge of the apex Court besides former persons heading the government’s security organizations. The NSO Group, which happens to be the seller of Pegasus reportedly sought to file a defamation suit against the media, countering the claims as “false and baseless.”
A host of media organizations including India’s The Wire published the report on early Sunday and it was termed the “Pegasus project” meaning TMC’s Derek O’Brien expressed the view that the spyware issue will be taken up in parliament in all earnestness, once more names of public functionaries and ministers come out in the open.” There was a sharp outcry against the alleged illegal surveillance across social media platforms, with the Mumbai Press Club pitching in and strongly condemning the alleged act of usage of malware.
The web news, The Wire claimed there were 300 Indians named in the spyware database, stating it was yet to come out with the entire list that includes big names from mainstream media houses. Journalists, opposition leaders besides two ministers feature in the list of Indians that formed part of the database. Way back in the election year of 2019, Israel’s NSO had faced similar alllegtions from the WhatsApp platform accusing the company of indulging in Cyber crimes by targeting Indian journalists and political activists. These had been vehemently denied by NSO repeatedly. The current set of allegations are emanating from the Paris-based NGO Forbidden Stories and also Amnesty International.
