A few days back, The Wire came up with a revelation of an alleged “leaked list” of potential targets of surveillance by an “unidentified agency” using the Pegasus software approved for by the Central government. However, The government, on the contrary, termed the report as a “fishing expedition.” Moreover, the claims were refuted on the basis of concrete facts which further led to the propaganda portal The Wire’s report to be discredited. Thus, it is now fishing for sympathy and is going round the clock to compensate by making the most of the recent police visit to their office in Delhi.
Reportedly, The Wire’s Delhi office was visited by a Delhi Police constable who had gone for a check and sought to make inquiries about certain journalists and Swara Bhaskara.
Meanwhile, journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, in one of his tweets described that the policeman questioned the staff present on the premises about journalist Vinod Dua, who was booked for sedition last year for making certain allegations against the Prime Minister. However, The Supreme Court, last month, quashed the sedition case against him, and said the sedition charge shouldn’t be invoked for criticising the government.
The policeman also made inquiries about journalist Afra Khanum Sherwani, as well as actor Swara Bhaskar, a vocal critic of the Modi government and asked to see the rent agreement for the premises, he added.
Not just another day at the office for @thewire_in after #PegasusProject
Policeman arrived today with inane inquiries. 'Who's Vinod Dua?' 'Who's Swara Bhaskar?' 'Can I see your rent agreement?' 'Can I speak to Arfa?'
Asked why he'd come: "Routine check for Aug 15"
Strange. pic.twitter.com/jk0a2dDIuS
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) July 23, 2021
Siddharth made an attempt to sensationalise the visit by tweeting, “They are foolish to think that something like this will intimidate The Wire. We just found it really strange,”
Refuting the above claims, the Delhi Police replied to Varadarajan’s tweet and said that the local beat officer had gone to the office for a check as “it did not bear any signboard at the entrance”.
Additionally, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) New Delhi Deepak Yadav tweeted “In the run-up to Independence Day, security and anti-terrorist measures such as tenant verification, checking of guest houses etc., are being taken throughout Delhi,”
In the run up to Independence Day,security and anti-terrorist measures such as tenant verification,checking of guest houses etc are being taken throughout Delhi.Local beat officer had gone to verify an office which didn't bear any signboard at the entrance. Please see the photo. pic.twitter.com/tmQObWIXmq
— DCP New Delhi (@DCPNewDelhi) July 23, 2021
The Wire has been constantly running propaganda against the government and the Pegasus list is one of them. As reported by TFI, MK Venu, one of The Wire’s three founders, was embroiled in the Niira Radia tapes Controversy which were realeased in 2008-09. According to the tapes, he was among the alleged power brokers of the UPA government and a part of the government-corporate-media nexus.
Rohini Singh, another member of The Wire team , was about to get introduced to people in the establishment because she was to report on policies of finance ministry In the Niira Radia case. She was later booted out from the Economic Times group for writing articles supportive of economic policies of Akhilesh Yadav and blatantly campaigning for him, in the last UP assembly elections.
The portal got its hands on the Pegasus list to try and deface the government but had to face failure when IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took to the parliament and said “The allegation is that individuals linked to these phone numbers were being spied upon. However, the report says that the presence of a phone number in the data does not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. Without subjecting a phone to this technical analysis, it is not possible to conclusively state whether it witnessed an attack attempt or was successfully compromised.”
In the aftermath of claims refuted by the government, the portal was discredited by many agencies. In order to compensate, the portal is fishing for sympathy and is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill of the routine police visit.
