CONGRESS CALLS BJP ‘BHARATIYA JASOOS PARTY’, SEEKS ANSWERS
NEW DELHI: The Congress demanded the removal of Union home minister Amit Shah and a probe into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role after reports revealed phone numbers of party leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders, Cabinet ministers, key bureaucrats and present and former heads of India’s security forces were listed for potential snooping by an Israeli spyware. Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala dubbed the ruling BJP as the “Bharatiya Jasoos Party”.
NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Monday demanded the removal of Union home minister Amit Shah and a probe into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role after reports suggested that the phone numbers of party leader Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders, Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats were listed as potential targets for snooping by a military-grade Israeli spyware.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and the party’s floor leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhury accused the government of playing with security. Surjewala dubbed the ruling BJP as the “Bharatiya Jasoos Party”, while Chowdhury said that instead of “Digital India”, PM Modi has started “Surveillance India”.
Both Kharge and Chowdhury said that the party will raise the issue in Parliament and take other Opposition parties on board.
Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay told HT that his party, too, wants to raise the issue in Parliament on Tuesday.
Even as the government rejected all charges and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw categorically stated that any form of illegal surveillance is not possible, Surjewala showed papers to claim the spy software maker NSO sold its products only to the government and its agencies.
“Modi government has used Israeli spyware for spying on political leaders, judges, an election commissioner and even on his own ministerial colleagues. The Modi government has launched an attack on the country,” he said.
“And the person responsible for it is none less than the home minister of India, Amit Shah. Of course, it could not be done without the consent and concurrence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the Congress leader said, alleging that in May 2019, Facebook and CERT, a central agency, had alerted the government that a vulnerability has been reported in WhatsApp that can be exploited by a remote attacker.
Posing questions on why “the Modi government is spying on its citizens and political leaders before and in the run-up to the 2019 general elections and thereafter”, the Congress demanded answers on “Who in government purchased and deployed the illegal spyware ? Who – the PM or HM – authorised the purchase of illegal spyware Pegasus? How many hundred or thousand crores were spent?”
Demanding Shah’s removal, Surjewala said, “if government was aware of the illegal purchase and deployment of the Pegasus spyware since AprilMay 2019, why did it chose to stay mum?”