Pegasus Snooping Scandal: A Watergate Moment for India!

 

 

 

 

 Pegasus Snooping Scandal: A Watergate Moment for India!

The snooping scandals in Indian politics are not new.  In the past scandals, governments have fallen and Chief Ministers have resigned. Ramakrishna Hegde, Chief Minister of Karnataka, had to step down in 1988 when the details emerged of wire-taps on 50 individuals, including journalists and dissidents within the Janata Party. The Chandra Shekhar government at the Centre in 1991 had collapsed with the withdrawal of the Congress support, following the sighting of intelligence operatives outside Rajiv Gandhi’s House. But in these earlier cases, the alleged infringement of privacy and misuse of the power of interception were far less flagrant, rather minuscule, compared to the most widespread and sophisticated en masse apparent misuse that is being revealed in the global media investigation called the Pegasus Project.

The Wire-an Indian digital news portal part of the consortium of 17 media organisations-The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde etc- is coming out with shocking revelations that the phone hacking software known as Pegasus, developed by an Israeli firm NSO, was used to hack phones of some 50,000 prominent individuals, including the Heads of States and Governments, across the world. The targeted list includes 300 Indians, of which over 40 journalists.  And the Amnesty International- the global human rights organization- reiterates that it stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project and that the data released is irrefutably linked to potential targets of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The people targeted for surveillance in India include the high and the mighty, putting all the four pillars of democracy-the Parliament, the Judiciary, the Executive and the Media on a scale unheard of- in a jittery.

Those who were potential targets range from the uppermost echelons of the judiciary, opposition party leaders, activists, journalists-all voices of dissent.  The Wire reported  that the potential targets  included the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former-EC Ashok Lavasa, election strategist Prashant Kishore, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee ,Union Ministers Prahalad Singh Patel and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Supreme Court woman staffer who complained about sexual harassment by the then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and 11 members and associates of  her family;  ex Chief of CBI Alok Verma, who wanted to initiate a probe in the Rafale deal, and 8 members of his family.  The Congress alleged the Pegasus spyware was used to topple the Congress –JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka in 2019, by causing the defections of 17 MLAs belonging to the coalition. Chief Minister Kumara Swamy and the Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah were on the targeted list.

Rahul Gandhi addressing the media, outside the Parliament House, on July 23, said that his phones were tapped: “Pegasus is classified by the Israeli state as a weapon and that weapon is supposed to be used against terrorists. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister have used this weapon against the Indian state and our institutions. They have used it politically. The only word for this is treason.” He demanded resignation of Amit Shah and a Supreme Court monitored inquiry “against Narendra Modi as no one else can authorise the use of Pegasus...only the Prime Minster and Home Minister can authorize its use.” Mamata Banerjee also urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu congnisance of Pegasus as “only the judiciary can save democracy.’  Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: “a spyware used against terrorists has been weaponised to deal with political opponents & dissenters. BJP has taken a leaf out of how Britishers would suspect & treat Indians during the colonial era. GOI is brazenly subverting basic human rights.”

The Pegasus is a cyber weapon; it can infiltrate a cell phone like a virus and turn it into a 24-hour surveillance device. Had it not been for the global media expose, the Indian government would have brushed it aside, as in 2019. The French, the Mexican and the Israel governments have ordered investigation into the revelations.

Amit Shah questioned the timing of the revelations- a day before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament: "Understand the chronology. This is a report by the disrupters from the obstructers.  Disrupters are global organisations which do not like India to progress. Obstructers are political players in India who do not want India to progress.” The present government has mastered the art of dismissing every revelation, however serious it may be, as concocted.  Why should 17 internationally reputed media organizations be interested in disrupting the Indian Parliament session when the revelations are about the use of spyware against prominent people the world over? The revelations rocked both the Houses of Parliament, stalling the proceedings by the agitated opposition parties.

The government is unwilling to allow any debate on the alleged snooping. Modi and Amit Shah are not even seen in the House when the parliament is witnessing such uproar. The opposition wants answers: Did the Government purchase the Pegasus software, which is sold only to governments or its vetted agents, not to private players? If not, how is a foreign entity allowed to spy on the Indian people? Does the Indian state have no responsibility to protect its citizens? It is a serious issue posing threat to national security. Yet the government refuses to answer. It has not denied that it used the Pegasus. Instead the Chief Ministers of BJP ruled sates were deployed to launch a synchronized counter attack on the opposition.

At the start of every parliamentary session, the government spokespersons, keep assuring that the government is willing to discuss and debate any issue; but eventually it refuses to accommodate opposition point of view or concede demand for probe on any issue, however important and serious it may be. And ultimately conducts the proceedings on its own terms. Whenever the opposition moves adjournment motion to demand discussion on important national issue, it is out-rightly rejected.  The multiple adjournment motions moved by opposition leaders to discuss the issue of alleged Pegasus snooping were rejected, thus “indulging in the politics of double speak.”   

Retired Supreme Court Judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna, who authored the draft of the data protection bill in 2018, says ,"the Modi government should probe the alleged phone hacking and explicitly state if any of its agencies used the Israeli military –grade spyware. They need to give a categorical answer about who’s behind the hacking. An important question is being asked in Parliament and they should answer it. That is how democracy is strengthened. They should give an open answer so that such issues are frankly dealt with. You can’t throw mud at people with allegations. You have to just give clear answers.”

The Pegasus snooping scandal is a Watergate moment for India. The Supreme Court, the Press and the civil society should seize the opportunity. In 1974, President Richard Nixon had to resign due to the exposing of Watergate scandal that involved burglary and illegal wire tapping at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in 1972 in the Watergate complex, by members of Nixon’s re-election campaign.

Senator Frank Church, who headed the Committee on intelligence and surveillance reform established in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, said “If this government ever became tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government  could enable it to impose total tyranny and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government no matter how privately it was done is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.”

The Pegasus spyware exposes how the advance in technology could be misused. In 1945, on hearing the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Albert Einstein had deeply regretted his association with the research in developing Atom Bomb. The modern technology, though useful in improving the living conditions of human beings, has equally become very dangerous

We are losing the core attributes of democracy- personal freedom, privacy and liberty. The espionage military software alleged used by the government to spy on the people, critical of the government, is a matter of serious concern. It is a question of future of democracy and security of the nation.  An independent judicial probe by the apex court alone can unearth the truth behind the cyber attack and prevent India turning into a surveillance state-more fearful and closed society- where independent thought is jeopardised.