Farmers Movement Archive

Gujarat: BJP, Congress spar over Pegasus row

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat units of the BJP and Congress are at loggerheads over the Pegasus spyware row. Chief minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday accused the Congress and other opposition parties of “playing into the hands of foreign forces” and displaying an “anti-national mentality” by creating a controversy over the Pegasus spyware issue “to malign India’s image”. An international media consortium reported on Sunday that more than 300 mobile phone numbers, including those of two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge, besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India, could have been targeted for hacking through the spyware. The issue has rocked the monsoon session of Parliament, with the Centre and opposition parties trading charges. “The Congress and other opposition parties are playing into the hands of foreign forces and have created a controversy over the Pegasus issue just to malign India’s image. The Union government has denied using Pegasus. Raising this issue just before Parliament’s monsoon session shows the anti-national mentality of the opposition,” the CM said in a statement. He added that the agency that had raised the issue had given no evidence that the spyware or its data were used in this country. “Though it has been claimed that 45 other countries also use this software, only India is being targeted,” he said, adding that the Congress was trying to come back to power even at the cost of national security. He said the Congress had tried to put the Centre on the mat over the Rafale deal, surgical strikes on terror camps and farm laws but had failed. The Congress always stood in support of “urban naxals” and “Tukde tukde gang”, the CM further claimed. “In response to an RTI plea filed in 2013, the UPA government had admitted to spying on 9,000 phone numbers and 500 email accounts. Recently, a phone tapping issue connected to the Congress-led Rajasthan government had also emerged,” Rupani said. Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia in a statement said, “The CM should apologize for his party leaders’ Snoopgate. I suggest that the CM be alert as he may be tracked by his own party leaders.”

The Times of India

2021-07-21

Ahmedabad