Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 30: Even as the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear next week a petition filed by two veteran journalists into the Pegasus issue, the Narendra Modi government held the Israeli spyware a “non-issue” showing no inclination for a debate in Parliament.
Despite the opposition continued to disrupt the proceedings of the monsoon session of Parliament demanding a discussion in the House on the alleged Pegasus surveillance complaint, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the controversy was a “non-issue” and that the government was ready for discussion on “people-related issues.”
A global collaborative investigative project has revealed that the Pegasus spyware was used to target over 300 mobile phone numbers in India, including two union ministers, Joshi and the Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, various Opposition leaders, a former Election Commissioner, a constitutional authority, and several journalists and business persons.
The issue has also been the cause for multiple disruptions of the Parliament’s Monsoon Session as Opposition parties have united to protest against the alleged snooping and demanded a discussion into the matter in both the Houses.
Calling the Opposition behaviour “unfortunate,” the minister urged the protesting members to allow the House to function.
Noting that the IT Minister Vaishnaw had already given a detailed statement on the issue in both the Houses, Joshi said, “There are so many issues directly related to the people of India… government is ready for discussions,” he said. “We don’t want to pass bills without discussions,” Joshi said even as the two Houses of Parliament adopted several bills without any discussion amidst opposition boycott.
Later, while interacting with reporters after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day, Joshi said the opposition parties could still seek “clarification” from the IT Minister on his statement over the matter.
The Narendra Modi government has denied allegations that the Pegasus spyware was being used to snoop on public figures. It has also called the report “sensational,” and an attempt “to malign Indian democracy and its well-established institutions.”
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court said it would be taking up next week a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by two veteran journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar on the Pegasus snooping issue. The development came after senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar sought an SIT probe, headed by a sitting or former judge, into the allegations. Their lawyer, Kapil Sibal, had requested Chief Justice N V Ramana to list the petition.
for an independent probe headed by a former or sitting judge into mass surveillance of over 142 potential “targets”, including journalists, lawyers, ministers, Opposition politicians, constitutional functionaries and civil society activists, using the military-grade Israeli spyware.
The petition was mentioned by senior advocate Kapil Sibal before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana.
Sibal submitted that the petition ought to be heard urgently as it concerned issues affecting the fundamental rights, civil liberties of citizens and even national security. He said the issue was making waves not only in India but also globally.
“Such mass surveillance using a military-grade spyware abridges several fundamental rights and appears to represent an attempt to infiltrate, attack and destabilise independent institutions that act as critical pillars of our democratic set-up,” the petition said.
It has sought a full disclosure from the government on whether it had authorised the snooping, which seems be an attempt to muzzle free speech and to chill dissent. The government, the petition said, had still not given a straight answer to whether the illegal hack was done with its blessings.
“Respondents [Ministries of Home, Information Technology and Communications] have not categorically ruled out obtaining Pegasus licences to conduct surveillance in their response, and have taken no steps to ensure a credible and independent investigation into these extremely serious allegations,” the petition highlighted.
The spying had caused serious dents on the rights to free speech and privacy. It had no legal basis. In fact, the legal regime for surveillance under Section 5(2) of the Telegraph Act had been completely bypassed. Civilians had become targets.
“Surveillance/interception is justified only in cases of public emergency or in the interests of public safety, and the existence of such conditions must be inferred reasonably and cannot be determined solely on the assessment of the government… The hack/interception/decryption occasioned by the Pegasus spyware constitutes a criminal offence,” the petition said.
The Pegasus software, manufactured by Israeli cyber-arms firm NSO Group Technologies Limited, is “extremely advanced and capable of infecting a mobile phone/device without any interaction with the owner (also known as a zero-click attack)”.
“It can conduct extremely intrusive surveillance, including tracking and recording calls, reading text and WhatsApp messages, collecting passwords, reading emails, accessing photos and videos, activating camera and microphone and enabling them to record events, and harvesting information from apps. It can be installed as simply as by placing a call on the targeted device, even if the call is not picked up,” the petition submitted.
The NSO Group claims to sell its products, including Pegasus, only to vetted governments to fight “crime and terror.” A forensic analysis of several mobile phones belonging to people targeted for surveillance by the Security Lab of Amnesty International has confirmed Pegasus-induced security breaches.
Besides Ram and Kumar, Rajya Sabha member John Brittas and Supreme Court advocate ML Sharma have also filed separate petitions in the apex court seeking independent investigation into the Pegasus allegations.