NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JULY 23
The Congress on Friday staged a demonstration in Gandhinagar over the alleged surveillance of its leaders and other dignitaries using Israeli spyware Pegasus, and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the matter.
भाजपा के शासको का गुजरात से ही जासूसी करने का इतिहास रहा है जो अब देश मे सरकार की गलत नीतिओ के विरोध में बोलनेवालो, लिखनेवालो की जासूसी कर निशान बना रहे है
देश के नेताओ, पत्रकारो और नागरिको के अधिकारों के हनन समान जासूसीकांड की सुप्रीम कोर्ट द्वारा जांच की जाए#PegasusSnoopgate pic.twitter.com/EwtoR2xDHY
— Amit Chavda (@AmitChavdaINC) July 23, 2021
Congress leaders and workers, led by the party’s state unit president, Amit Chavda, and Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Paresh Dhanani, first gathered outside Gandhinagar circuit house with banners and raised slogans against the BJP government at the Centre over the issue.
દેશના લોકોની જાસૂસી કરતી ભાજપ સરકાર સામે સુપ્રીમ કોર્ટ દ્વારા ન્યાયિક તપાસની માંગણી સાથે રાજ્યપાલશ્રી @ADevvrat જી ને આવેદનપત્ર .@INCGujarat demands that an independent judicial probe be immediately established to investigate
#PegasusSnoopgate
#GovernorGujarat pic.twitter.com/UKQ9cYiHTl— Amit Chavda (@AmitChavdaINC) July 23, 2021
Later, Chavda, Dhanani and other senior leaders met Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan and handed over a memorandum, which was meant for President Ram Nath Kovind.
“The BJP is conspiring against political leaders, journalists and others by spying on them. This surveillance is akin to an undeclared emergency. This is a direct violation of people’s right to privacy. We have handed over a memorandum, meant for the President, to the Governor seeking a SC-monitored probe into the entire matter,” Dhanani told reporters.
In the memorandum, the Gujarat Congress claimed that the Israeli spyware Pegasus might have been used by the Centre to topple elected Congress governments of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
The opposition party also suspected that mobile phones of their leaders might have been put on illegal surveillance by the BJP government during the 2017 and 2020 Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat.
The memorandum claimed that phones of over 300 persons, including Rahul Gandhi and two Central ministers, were hacked using Pegasus for spying.
The Congress alleged that instead of using this expensive software to spy on Pakistan and China, the BJP government chose to spy on the people of their own country.
While French government has already ordered a probe over the issue after learning that some of their leaders and journalists were also spied on using the software, the BJP government is still denying the fact that phones of around 300 dignitaries were hacked in India, the Congress claimed, seeking an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on moral grounds.
An international media consortium had recently reported that over 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders, besides scores of business persons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking using Pegasus software/spyware.
The government has, however, dismissed allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part on specific people, saying it ‘has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever’.
