Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday strongly objected to Congress lawmaker Gaurav Gogoi’s allegation on the use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on politicians and journalists, saying the Congress leader should either submit proof to back his charge or the allegation should be removed from the records.
“He has levelled a serious allegation. He claims that Pegasus is installed on his phone. He should present the evidence in Parliament. He cannot say such words. Either these words be removed, or he should present evidence…. The Parliament is for serious discussions and not for political accusations,” Shah said as soon as Gogoi made the allegation during a discussion on the problem of drug abuse in the country.
Gogoi said: “You snoop on us, install Pegasus on our phones and reporters. How many drug mafias have been arrested on the basis of Pegasus. The surveillance that you mount on us… How many drug mafias have been caught on the basis of surveillance?” Gogoi said.
In response, Gogoi said if he has made a mistake, the government should say that it has not used Pegasus. Shah retorted: “He has claimed that Pegasus was installed on his phone. He should present the basis for this”.
Gogoi turned to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for guidance. He said: “Members should make statements with adequate evidence and proof to uphold the dignity of the Parliament”.
The Pegasus row erupted in July 2021 after an international consortium of media outlets and investigative journalists reported that the phones of Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 that were potentially targeted by Pegasus, Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software. According to this consortium, Pegasus can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.
The Centre has refused to confirm or deny whether it used Pegasus spyware for surveillance of Indians, contending that such disclosure would be against national interest.
In October last year, the Supreme Court constituted a panel to investigate whether the Centre or any state government acquired and used Israeli spyware Pegasus for surveillance of Indian citizens, and to also ascertain details of people targeted.
In its report to the Supreme Court this year, the panel said it didn’t find any evidence of the use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on the 29 phones that were examined and that the Union government did not assist it in the probe.
“…the report has concluded that there is inconclusive evidence on Pegasus on any of the 29 phones that were given. In 5 phones some malware was found but the technical committee says it cannot be said to be Pegasus. It could be due to their poor cyber security…this is the crux,” the bench of then Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said on August 25 during a hearing on a bunch of petitions on the spyware.