Displaying a trailer of what Mamata Banerjee was likely to deliver in Wednesday’s Trinamool Congress martyrs’ day speech from a pan-Indian platform, the Bengal ruling outfit on Tuesday launched a scathing broadside against the BJP Government demanding resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah for trying to turn India into a “spying democracy.”
“There is no point diverting the Pegasus issue which the BJP is trying … they are guilty of breaching citizen’s privacy which they will have to account for … everyone knows that not a leave turns in India without the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah … so the least they should do is … a resignation of Amit Shah as the Home Minister … because without their approval no spyware could have entered India from Israel … We want a full investigation into the matter,” TMC MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy said.
Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mohua Moitra wanted to know “whether India is a client of the NSO” the Israeli concern that makes Pegasus spyware. She said if the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the IT Minister did not lie in the floor of the House then they should first answer a list of questions raised by her party.
“We have a list of questions for the government and we will not allow Parliament to run unless these questions are answered,” she said asking whether any department of the central government purchased Pegasus or for that matter whether the spyware was still being used and which agency requisitioned this data (of spying).
Her senior colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien said that his party would not let the situation die down until there was a full-fledged investigation... He said “This is a serious issue and the TMC will not compromise on it. We will not let either House run till this government comes clean on the charges of snooping and surveillance,” alleging how the government spent millions to hack into phones at a time when the country was fighting pandemic.
Former TMC MP and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh wondered the cash for purchasing Pegasus came from the hiked petroleum prices.
But the most biting remark came from party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who took a jibe and the Home Minister saying despite “you made big efforts by bringing in CBI, ED and Election Commission along with huge money power backed by the spyware you failed to win Bengal … that should be a shame for you.”
The Trinamool Congress’ concerted attack against the BJP comes a day ahead of the Chief Minister’s TMC martyrs’ day speech which her party organizes every year on July 21. This year the speech will be delivered nationally from Delhi in a virtual mode and will be heard and seen over hundreds of giant screens put up across a dozen states--- including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Assam, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere --- where the BJP has its interest dug in.
Meanwhile, in an apparent bid to counter the TMC’s propaganda drive the BJP has lined up a sit-in programme at Rajghat in Delhi on Wednesday.
The dharna would be held to protest against the reported incidents of post-poll violence in Bengal, State party spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said alleging 38 BJP workers had been killed post Assembly elections in Bengal.
“Tomorrow, the party will pay homage to the martyrs who were killed during post-poll violence in… Similar programmes will be organized in all the districts of Bengal,” he said.