CPI-M Manipur slams NDA Govt, demands answer
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 21 2021:
The Secretariat of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Manipur slammed the NDA government at the Centre for alleged snooping on hundreds of Indian nationals with the help of Pegasus spyware and demanded an answer from the BJP-led coalition government in this regard.
In a statement, CPI (M) state secretary Kshetrimayum Shanta asked the government who authorised the illegal surveillance of Indians to malign Indian democracy and its well-established institutions.
The information regarding government of India procuring the Pegasus spyware from an Israeli firm, NSO Group, the worldwide leader in cyber surveillance, is a matter of concern.
These investigations reveal a large number of opposition and ruling politicians including two union ministers -Ashwini Vaishnav (Railways, IT & Communications) and Prahlad Singh Patel (MOS of Jal Sakti), journalists and human rights activists have been targeted for surveillance by hacking their smart phones.
"In India, numbers of phones belonging to hundreds of journalists, activists, opposition politicians, government officials and business executives were on the snooping list", the CPI (M) statement quoted the investigation report.
Reports in Indian media have named at least 40 journalists, out of the list of 300 revealed, who are under surveillance of this spy software, Pegasus, it added.
It recounted that two years ago, CPI (M) MP KK Ragesh put forth in the Parliament that such dangerous spyware was being used in India as revealed by WhatsApp.
The Modi government's response had not categorically denied that it engaged the services of NSO but claimed that there is no "unauthorized surveillance".
The present IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, whose own number and wife's were identified as targets in 2017 before he entered Parliament, said in Parliament that the project's claims about Indian Surveillance were an attempt to malign Indian democracy and its well established institutions.
There are contradictory statements on the issue by the ruling party managers and leaders, the statement said.
But, with these revelations, it is clear that the government engaged NSO for such surveillance on its own citizens including some top-ranking functionaries.
The Central government must come clean on what is its engagement with NSO, what are the terms and how much public funds have been used to pay for this service.
Use of cyber-spy software to hack smart phones even by the government is prohibited under Indian laws, the statement said, while asking under what law the government has undertaken such surveillance activities on its citizens.
The right to privacy is a fundamental right laid down by the Supreme Court, but the BJP government is prevaricating on legislating the privacy law, it stated.
Earlier instances of hacking smart phones and computers of human rights activists have been exposed.
In those instances materials are digitally planted on their devices and then they were used for their arrests under draconian laws, CPI (M) maintained.
Terming it as unacceptable level of action and authoritarianism employing fascistic methods, CPI (M) said that the 'snoop, plant, arrest' formula employed by the BJP government is in violation of the fundamental rights of Indian citizens.
The BJP Central government must answer and come clean on using the Pegasus cyber software for surveillance of Indian citizens in an illegal and unauthorized manner, the statement demanded.
Comment
