No to illegal snooping!

There are times when a citizen must come forward and dare to call a spade a spade. I have dared to criticise both the Central and various State Governments on several issues before. The Central government seems to fall short of proving its credentials and intentions over another crucial issue stalling the Parliament ever since the monsoon session commenced.

It is relating to an Israeli Spyware, Pegasus, owned by NSO Group. The name came known in 2019 when Facebook took Pegasus to court for snooping on nearly 1400 users, including 121 Indians. Unlike the other tracking, tapping and snooping Apps, Pegasus can seamlessly infiltrate smartphones without the customary exhortations like ‘click the link’ or ‘open the attachment.’ NSO had claimed ‘Sovereign Immunity’ but admitted that it provided the spyware to ‘duly vetted’ governments and law enforcing agencies to fight terrorism and crimes. Later Microsoft and Google joined Facebook in the plaint.

Pegasus once again hit the headlines on the eve of the monsoon session of Parliament, when the news broke out that nearly 50000 people worldwide are under surveillance, including 300 from India. Indian IT Minister promptly called it a ploy to destabilise India’s democracy.

The Minister, however, made a U-turn on Monday, 19 July, and denied in Lok Sabha any snooping by Pegasus, dismissing it as having no factual basis and merely a sensational story. The Pegasus long list, leaked by a French organisation, involved heads of states, political figures, activists, lawyers, and journalists. Many numbers were forensically examined to authenticate the infiltrated spyware in the phones by a team of journalists.

Of the politicians, Rahul Gandhi, Abhishek Banerjee, Prahalad Singh and Ashwini Vaishnav (both Cabinet ministers), Prashant Kishor names appear, among others.

The Government of India has strongly refuted any involvement in the snooping. However, NSO claims that it offers spyware only to the vetted governments. Could it be possible that the Home Ministry was acting independently and unauthorizedly to spy on targets?

Despite the Indian government’s stand, many other governments have commenced official enquiry over the appearance of the name of their leaders. Prominent are Emmanuel Macron, the French President, Andrez Obrador, the current Mexican President, Imran Khan, Pak PM, Mostafa Madbouly, Egyptian PM, Saad-Eddine El Othmani, the PM of Morroco, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, to name a few.

Interestingly, Morocco has initiated investigations if Algeria had spied on Morrocon King and PM. If proved to the affirmative, China or Pakistan could be spying on our leaders as well, throwing world democracy and the survival of all elected governments into peril.

Wikileaks and Snowden affairs seem Disney material, compared to the cold horror of quiet spying, which all must condemn. The government of India must come out in the open and clear any misgivings of its role. French and Moroccan investigations, if conclusively prove Pegasus spying, will be not only embarrassing for India as well but lessen the low trust on governments by its citizens.

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix