New Delhi: After being accused of spying on journalists and human rights activists on Facebook-owned WhatsApp platform, the Modi government on Thursday tried to turn tables on WhatsApp, seeking its detailed response by November 4 in the name of breach of privacy.
WhatsApp had on Wednesday revealed that the messaging platform was used for spying on nearly 1400 persons whose phones had been hacked, without stating who was involved in the dirty business of snooping or how many Indians were affected.
Since the persons whose phones were hacked are mostly journalists and political activists, who are perceived to be ‘anti-establishment,’ hence the needle of suspicion pointed at the government.
A political tussle has since erupted between the BJP and the Congress on who had planted the Israeli bug in the smartphones. The Congress put the government in the dock because the Israeli cyber intelligence company, NSO Group, sells its spyware Pegasus only to government intelligence agencies.
Even as the government tried to play down the issue by ordering a probe, the Congress voiced suspicion that the same Pegasus software would have been used to spy on many of their leaders and on judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
The spyware was allegedly installed by giving missed calls on phones. The software has the ability to collect intimate data from a target device.
The BJP has dared WhatsApp to reveal the names of those affected, in response to a report that those targeted in India included human rights activists who were arrested over their alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon riots near Pune.
The sensational disclosure emanated from a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by WhatsApp in a California federal court against NSO Group, which allegedly developed the spyware.
The lawsuit has disclosed names of over a dozen journalists, Dalit activists, lawyers and academics in India who had been alerted by the messaging app in May 2019 that their phones were under surveillance.
Information Technology and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was the first to express concern, saying WhatsApp has been asked to explain how it was safeguarding the privacy of Indian citizens.He tweeted: "The Government is concerned at the breach of privacy of citizens on the messaging platform Whatsapp.
We have asked it to explain the breach and what it is doing to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indian citizens."Instead of issuing an official press note, Prasad resorted to make announcement on the social media and that prompted the Congress to voice its suspicions about the government.
It said: "Right to privacy is being blatantly attacked under the BJP rule. When they failed to pass laws to snoop on citizens, the next step was to allow secret spying.
The government must be held accountable for its actions."Minister Prasad retorted: "Those trying to make political capital out of it need to be gently reminded about the bugging incident in the office of the then eminent Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during UPA regime.
Also a gentle reminder of the spying of the then Army Chief Gen. V. K. Singh.""These are instances of breach of privacy of highly reputed individuals, on personal whims and fancies of a family," he added.
