Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made a statement amid the din on the Pegasus affair and termed media reports about snooping on a number of people as an attempt to malign the Indian democracy. There is no substance to such sensationalism, he said.
In a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha, Vaishnav said that with several checks and balances being in place, "any sort of illegal surveillance" by unauthorised persons is not possible in India.
"When we look at this issue through the prism of logic, it clearly emerges that there is no substance, whatsoever, behind this sensationalism," he said.
The statement assumes significance in the backdrop opposition parties creating a ruckus over the issue in both the Houses of Parliament on the first day of the Monsoon session.
The minister made this statement in response to media reports that spyware Pegasus was being used to conduct surveillance on several Indians, including political leaders, government officials and journalists.
"A highly sensational story was published by a web portal yesterday night.... The press report appeared a day before the Monsoon session of the Parliament.
"This cannot be a coincidence. In the past similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp. Those reports have no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties.... The press report of July 18, 2021 also appeared to be an attempt to malign the Indian democracy and a well-established institution," the minister said.
He added, "We can't fault those who haven't read the news story in detail & I request all members of House to examine issues on facts & logic. The basis of this report is that there is a consortium that has got access to a leaked database of 50,000 phone numbers."
Stating that the allegation is that individuals linked to these phone numbers for being spied upon, Vaishnaw said, however, the report says that the presence of a phone number in the data does not reveal whether was a device was infected by Pegasus or subjected to an attempted hack.
More than 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of business persons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to government agencies, an international media consortium reported on Sunday.
The government, however, had 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".
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
