NYT drops Pegasus bomb, PM under fire

New Delhi: A New York Times report claiming India bought Pegasus spyware as part of a $2 billion defence deal with Israel in 2017 triggered a major controversy on Saturday with the Opposition alleging that the government indulged in illegal snooping that amounted to “treason”.

The Opposition parties indicated that they would raise the issue strongly in the Budget Session of Parliament starting Monday, even as Union minister Gen (retd) V.K. Singh called The New York Times “Supari Media”. A government source said the matter related to the Pegasus software was being monitored by a committee under the Supreme Court -- headed by retired Supreme Court judge R.V. Raveendran -- and its report was awaited.

The Congress launched an all-out attack on the government over the report, accusing it of deceiving Parliament, duping the Supreme Court, hijacking democracy and indulging in treason.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter, “The Modi Government bought Pegasus to spy on our primary democratic institutions, politicians and public. Government functionaries, opposition leaders, armed forces, judiciary all were targeted by these phone tappings. This is treason.”

The Congress urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and initiate appropriate penal proceedings against the government for attempting to “deliberately and knowingly deceive” it.

Asked about the issue, Shashi Tharoor, senior Congress leader and chairman of the parliamentary panel on communications and information technology, said, “The government has chosen not to be responsive to the IT Committee about Pegasus, and the stand taken by a number of BJP members - not to permit a quorum when the issue was to be discussed - has also meant that the Committee has made no headway in establishing the facts.”