Party seeks to know whether Modi Govt spied on key people before 2019 polls
The deployment of Israeli spyware Pegasus issue turned complex with the Congress on Sunday claiming that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had received a message from WhatsApp informing that her phone was suspected to have been hacked.
The main Opposition party also sought to know from the Narendra Modi Government whether it spied on citizens and political leaders ahead of the 2019 parliamentary election. The party, however, did not say exactly when Priyanka received the message.
The BJP hit back at the Congress saying the Opposition party is imagining things. In a tweet, BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya said, “Haven’t we seen Congress imagining things that don’t exist?”
Last Friday Priyanka had demanded an explanation from the Government after several noted activists and journalists were notified about the security breach in the app and wondered whether the current dispensation has engaged Israeli agencies to snoop into the phone of key persons including politicians which she said was “a gross violation of human rights with a grave ramifications on national security”.
Now on Sunday the Congress said Priyanka like other political leaders including Mamata Banerjee and Praful Patel has received WhatsApp’s communication about her account being hacked. A day ago the West Bengal Chief Minister claimed her phones were being tapped and sought a probe into charges of “snooping” on activists and scribes.
“I want to tell that Priyanka Gandhi also received a similar message from WhatsApp around the same time,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, responding to a question about Praful and Mamata receiving messages from the messaging platform. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, of which India accounts for about 400 million.
Priyanka received the message around the same time when WhatsApp was sending similar messages to those whose phones were allegedly hacked, Surjewala claimed.
This comes after WhatsApp revealed last week that Indian journalists and human rights activists were among roughly 1,400 users globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware, Pegasus.
The messaging platform had said it sent special messages to all the affected users stating that it had “reason to believe they were impacted by this attack to directly inform them about what happened.”
WhatsApp had informed the Indian Government in September that 121 Indian users were targeted by the Israeli spyware Pegasus, but the Information Technology Ministry has contended that the information received was not complete.
Sources at WhatsApp said the messaging platform has now responded to the Government’s last week’s query seeking an explanation on the Pegasus spyware incident that allegedly snooped on journalists and human rights activists across the world, including India.
Surjewala asked whether those sitting in the echelons of power are guilty of criminal offences and whether the Government knew of the illegal spyware being deployed to spy on key persons.
“Shocking facts in #WhatsAppSpygate - Was the BJP Government spying on citizens and political leaders in the run up to 2019 elections. Did the Government know of the illegal spyware since May 2019? Are those sitting in echelons of power guilty of criminal offences,” Surjewala asked.
Describing the entire WhatsApp snooping episode as worrisome, Congress leader Anand Sharma, who chairs the parliamentary standing committing on home affairs, said this issue will be taken up at the panel’s next meeting on November 15.
The Home Secretary is scheduled to brief the panel on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir in the next meeting. “In that meeting this issue will also be discussed and we will seek details from the Secretary,” Sharma said.
Concerned about this development, Shashi Tharoor, who heads the parliamentary standing committee on information technology, said the panel would share its concerns. He said he will consult other members by email on the matter.
“In any case cybersecurity is a major issue on our agenda and we are definitely going to take this up under that rubric. And we will be seeking clarifications from the Government,” Tharoor said.
He said as the WhatsApp NSO issue has emerged in the open it is important to ensure that no other social media platform can be similarly used, and the panel will seek to learn how exactly the Government can ensure that.
“It is vital that as a democracy, India remains vigilant about the risk of our freedoms being eroded by technological means. We must not, at any price, become a surveillance State like China,” he said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday said many people he has met here have raised concerns over breach of privacy. Dhankhar, however, clarified that he was not aware of the information available with Mamata on the matter, drawing reactions from TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee, who questioned “the Governor’s need to comment on everything the Chief Minister has said”.
Meanwhile, the WhatsApp had said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, that is reportedly behind the technology that helped unnamed entities hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users.
These users span across four continents and include diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.