Pegasus: Frame law to regulate surveillance

The question is did or did not the Government of India use the Israeli spyware Pegasus to snoop on a motley group of individuals, ranging from top Opposition leaders to ministers serving in the government of the day to businessmen, journalists and activists. Blanket denials cut no ice since an international investigation by the French group Forbidden Stories ad Amnesty International and aided by several media organisations has revealed a list of about 300 Indian names among about 50,000 mobile phones that may have been compromised by sophisticated technology that goes far beyond tapping and, in fact, steals the entire phone’s content for surveillance. The fact that such spyware by a particular Israeli company, NSO Group, is sold only to “vetted governments” means there can be only one guilty party behind such suspected large scale snooping.

Spying is as old as the hills and India’s historical princely rulers were said to be adepts. The point is modern technology has so evolved as to leave everyone with a mobile phone or an Internet connection susceptible to being spied upon. Only a fair and independent investigation, for instance by a judicial commission or a JPC, can even attempt to bring out the truth behind who may have ordered such sweeping surveillance. Explanations quoting the timing of the expose, like attributing it to antiIndia propaganda, are futile since what is public knowledge now points to spying operations run globally by governments like India, Mexico and a few Middle East police states. The assertion that due processes are followed in India in matters of “phone tapping” surveillance hardly inspires confidence and sophisticated spying technology to overcome encryption is available at a price that can be afforded only by the biggest players.

The use of Israeli spyware, sold by scores of tech companies, has found willing users in India and not just by State actors as even the cricket board BCCI bought such software for its operations once. The issue is now that everyone has been given access to the fruits of investigation revealing extensive use of spyware, the least that can be done is to institute a probe. India, among the list of alleged Pegasus software purchasing countries, is one with credible democratic credentials. The onus of defending the principles of freedom and people’s rights enshrined in the Constitution devolves upon the politicians who are elected as leaders and who are known to tap the State apparatus of surveillance and spying to further their ends. The laws governing authorised interception that exist are being challenged in the Supreme Court. They tend to lean towards the executive taking such decisions on surveillance, avowedly in the interest of national security but with no judicial oversight or transparency.

The recent history of interceptions, as marked periodically by exposes in the last three years, leaves little room for trust. No intention is seen to reform the surveillance process, which facilitates executive overreach. It would be in the interest of a democratic India to reexamine the whole matter of surveillance and interception and bring in parliamentary and judicial oversight so that the rights of citizens and their privacy is protected by the State regardless of who is in power. This is the least that can be done to reassure India that it is is not degenerating into a police state far removed from the ideals that drove the freedom movement. Democracy cannot just be in name.

The use of Israeli spyware, sold by

scores of tech companies, has found willing users

in India. Even the cricket board BCCI

bought such software for its operations once.