By Pervez Bari
Bhopal: The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has vehemently condemned the snooping on the human rights activists and journalists in the country using an Israeli spyware Pegasus. This has been revealed by Facebook-owned WhatsApp itself. It has alleged that Israeli cyber security company NSO used WhatsApp servers to spread spyware Pegasus and target 1,400 users across 20 countries.
SDPI national secretary Abdul Majeed in a statement, demanded immediate legal action against the people involved and investigate the agencies that have benefitted from spying. A significant chunk of the potential victims appear to be activists or lawyers associated with the Bhima Koregaon controversy and activists who work for Dalits and tribals.
Indian Govt. engaged Israeli assistance in snooping: Majeed
He said that if it is true that Indian Govt. had engaged Israeli assistance in snooping on Indian citizens then it is clear our defence is compromised. It is funny that instead of owning up the responsibility the Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is passing the buck to WhatsApp. He pointed out that the WhatsApp data which is considered encrypted from end to end could be read by others and the software was being used by BJP to spy on the Opposition leaders. NSO sells its expensive software to government agencies only
Abdul Majeed alleged that the BJP-led NDA Govt. had first asked Israeli company to hack selected WhatsApp accounts but when news broke out the higher-ups are trying to appear innocent. Instead of asking WhatsApp, the Central government could have asked the Israeli Govt. itself to reveal the details. Both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are great chums of the Israeli PM. And Indian intelligence agencies are known to share information with Israeli spying agencies.