Ever since the Pegasus spyware news broke out, a day before the Monsoon session of the parliament and the left-liberal establishment failed to prove the authenticity of its claims, the BJP leaders have come out swinging to debunk their lies. Leading the charge has been the troika of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth, former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Holding a press conference, CM Yogi took apart the liberal brigade and remarked that Pegasus spyware was part of a bigger plot to defame India.
Yogi Adityanath said, “The Opposition has become a part of a conspiracy to defame India. Similar conspiracy was hatched during the India visit of former US President Donald Trump.” He added, “The Opposition is defaming the democracy as well.”
He further added, “Serving such sensational reports, a day before the parliament session, the opposition is trying to spread poison in the society. It also shows the falling, moral standards of the politics of the country.”
Referring to the ongoing farmers’ protest, the UP Chief Minister said that farmer agitation has also been turned into a protest against India by the Opposition’s negative politics. He said, “The people of India will respond in the same manner as they did in 2019.
Read More: An international conspiracy against the Modi government has begun right before the UP Election
Meanwhile, Devendra Fadnavis similarly said that the opposition didn’t want the parliament to run. He said, “The opposition doesn’t want the parliament session to continue and is using the Pegasus story to derail it. It has a larger design. 45 nations are named but only India is dragged. One day before the session, the report is printed and published so that ruckus can be created in the parliament. It is a conspiracy to demonize the Indian democracy.”
However, out of the three, it was Shivraj Singh Chouhan that was in a no holds barred mood as he targeted Congress by stating that a party that had already reached zero, what goals the government of India could fulfil by spying on it.
#Pegasus is a mythical winged divine horse as per Greek mythology.
Pegasus scandal is a mythical scandal leaked to selective left liberal outlets.
That's all the truth you need to know.
Thank you.
— Atul Kumar Mishra (@TheAtulMishra) July 19, 2021
He said, “For Congress, family is first. I don’t understand the politics of Congress. Their political power has stooped to zero. So even if we spy on them what are we going to achieve?”
The CM didn’t stop here and took a jibe at Congress party prince as well saying, “Rahul Gandhi is politically numb. So what will we do by tapping a phone of a person who churns ‘gold out of potatoes’.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZl2JkKVMkE
Chouhan further stated that late leaders like K Kamraj and Lal Bahadur Shastri were snooped upon by Indira Gandhi. He added, “Similarly, there was surveillance on Sitaram Kesari and Manmohan Singh at the instance of Sonia Gandhi and now Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are doing the same with G-23 Congress leaders.” Many leaders in the UPA government had made allegations of phone tapping. Shivraj Singh Chouhan remembered that Manmohan Singh had mentioned that the phone tapping was done by a private agency, not by the government.
Read More: Pegasus Hit Job: It does not hurt Modi, only makes him look better
Reported by TFI, an RTI filed by one Prosenjit Mondal in 2013 revealed that around 9,000 phones and 500 email accounts were watched every month by the UPA government at the time. The response was given by none other than the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on August 6, 2013. The RTI revealed, “On an average, between 7,500 to 9,000 orders for interception of telephones and 300 to 500 orders for interception of emails are issued by Central Government per month whereas.”
The controversy
Pegasus is a malware that infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones. As soon as the report was out, Indian media and opposition launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government accusing it of infringing upon their privacy rights. Curiously, this report was released a day before the Monsoon session of the parliament started where PM Modi was set to introduce his new cabinet ministers post the grand reshuffle.
However, the authenticity of the report can be ascertained from one paragraph of a Guardian report. It mentioned, “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. However, the consortium believes the data is indicative of the potential targets NSO’s government clients identified in advance of possible surveillance attempts.”
While liberal lobby churns such engaging lies, the government continues to go about its business as the lieutenants in Yogi-Fadnavis-Shivraj hammer them down quietly.