Nitish seeks probe into Pegasus snooping row
PATNA: Bihar chief minister and leader of the Janata Dal (United), a Bharatiya Janata Party ally, Nitish Kumar on Monday joined the voices demanding an investigation into the Pegasus snooping row, stressing that a probe would reveal “who are after the phone tapping or hacking”.
“A probe should be done, indeed. We have been hearing about telephone tapping for so many days, the matter should be discussed (in Parliament). People (Opposition) have been reiterating (for talks) for so many days, it should be done,” Kumar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, when asked if the matter should be investigated.
“Investigation of the issue is also important as it is not known who is after the phone tapping or hacking,” he added.
The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that many Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers that were potentially targeted by Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software, Pegasus, with a forensic analysis of 10 of the targets proving they had been hacked or that there had been attempts to do so.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of his weekly public interaction programme — Janta Darbar — Kumar also spoke about the Opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the controversy. “Those who have any concrete information with regard to such alleged snooping, must share the same with the government. I am sure the issue will be squarely addressed,” he said.
The controversy has stalled the monsoon session, the first full sitting of Parliament in 18 months, as the opposition parties press their demand for a discussion. While the government has given a statement in Parliament saying that no illegal interception has been done, there has been no discussion on the issue in the two Houses.
On August 5, the Supreme Court will hear a clutch of petitions seeking a special investigation into the Pegasus scandal. The petitioners include senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar, CPM MP John Brittas and advocate ML Sharma.
Last week, too, Kumar spoke on the issue of potential snooping of people’s phones. “Sometimes, technologies, which are largely beneficial, can be misused also. But it is not good that the technology should be misused to trouble someone,” he had said.
A highly invasive malware, Pegasus can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device, effectively turning a phone into a pocket spy.
To be sure, the presence of a number does not indicate the individual’s phone was hacked — just that it was of interest. In the absence of digital forensics of specific devices, it is not possible to conclusively establish that the phones linked to these numbers were hacked.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national spokesman and Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha has urged the CM to stick to his demands. “I hope he does not come under pressure and his statements weren’t misinterpreted,” said Jha.
BJP spokesman, Ranjan Patel said that the party believed there was no such spying. “It is all opposition’s baseless charges.they are not getting any issue, so they are raking up a non-issue. Our party and the government work with total transparency,” added the BJP leader.