No evidence linking govt, BJP to Pegasus: Former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke on the Pegasus spyware row and said there was not an iota of evidence linking the government and the BJP with the Pegasus.
Former Union information and technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday dismissed any link between the Narendra Modi-led government and the Pegasus spyware. “There is no shred of evidence to link Pegasus with either the government or the BJP,” Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The senior BJP leader attacked the Congress over comments accusing the Central government of snooping. Refuting all allegations, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Congress’s remarks were “baseless and bereft of propriety.”
Even as the Congress accused the government of “treason” and demanded a probe into the Pegasus spyware report, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Congress’s remarks were a “new low in the political discourse of the party [Congress] that has ruled the country for more than 50 years.”
Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that the report was published before the Monsoon Session of Parliament to disrupt the session and to stall India’s growth story. The former minister accused those behind the report of having an anti-India agenda and trying to create disharmony in the country.
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“Can we deny that bodies like Amnesty had a declared anti-India agenda in many ways? They withdrew from India when we asked them about their foreign funding as per law,” he said.
Can we deny that bodies like Amnesty had a declared anti-India agenda in many ways? They withdrew from India when we asked them about their foreign funding as per law. pic.twitter.com/w0JkaOtgMT — Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) July 19, 2021
Ravi Shankar Prasad said that there is a robust legal framework in India and phone tapping and surveillance can only be done in cases of national security, and that too after following a legal procedure.
He said, “Our IT Minister confirmed today that lawful interceptions of a phone can only be made as per relevant rules under provisions of Section 5 of Indian Telegraph Act along with the permission of Home Secretary of the centre or Home Secretary of the state.”
Our IT Minister confirmed today that for lawful interceptions of a phone can only be made as per relevant rules under provisions of Section 5 of Indian Telegraph Act along with the permission of Home Secretary of the centre or Home Secretary of the state. pic.twitter.com/P5FuAFx5cc — Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) July 19, 2021
Moreover, he pointed out that those who broke the story say the presence of a phone number in the database does not mean that the phone was infected.
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He questioned if some political parties and leaders have become “supari agents” of such conspiracy, adding that the conspiracy was being flamed by those who are upset with the development and growth made in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ROW OVER PEGASUS REPORT
On July 18, a number of news websites published a fresh set of reports on Pegasus, based on research carried out by Amnesty International. The reports highlight that Pegasus software, developed by Israel-based cybersecurity firm NSO Group, remains in use and that several governments, including India, are using this spyware to snoop on thousands of people.
The report alleges that Pegasus was used in India to hack the phones of several individuals, including prominent journalists, politicians, Opposition leaders and even a few Union ministers.
The report has further claimed that most of these prominent individuals were targeted between 2018 and 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
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