By now, ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party members have fulminated and muttered complaints about the massive story of illegal surveillanc...
By now, ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party members have fulminated and muttered complaints about the massive story of illegal surveillance using Pegasus spyware on Indian citizens.
On Monday, new Information Technology minister Ashiwini Vaishnav described the reports as “highly sensational”, hours before it emerged his own phone number had been on a list of potential hacking targets. Union Home Minister Amit Shah attempted to repurpose his infamous chronology comment and make vague remarks about a global conspiracy.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, recently sacked from the Cabinet, asked if this was “revenge for the way India handled Covid, caccination and more than 75% of population are getting free vaccines” even though the consortium of news organisations that broke the story were reporting on surveillance in Mexico, Rwanda, Morocco and Hungary.
In all of these official responses, one phrase was missing: India did not use Pegasus spyware on its own citizens.
Here are the main responses so far, not counting sundry defences put up by party spokespersons on TV talkshows:
- The official response to queries from the Washington Post, later comically released to ANI without any attribution.
- Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav’s statement in Parliament.
- Home Minister Amit Shah’s “disruptor-obstructer” press release.
- Recently fired minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s press conference on behalf of the party.
Each of these feature various dodges about the...
