If France, Israel can order probe into Pegasus snooping, why not India, asks P Chidambaram

Congress activists stage a protest against Pegasus Project, in Kolkata, on Sunday. Pic/PTI

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said the government should either call for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Pegasus snooping allegations or request the Supreme Court to appoint a sitting judge to investigate the matter.

If France, Israel can order investigation into Pegasus snooping matter, why India should not, he asked in an interview with PTI. He also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement in Parliament clarifying whether there had been a surveillance or not.

The former home minister said he was not sure that one can go to the extent of saying that the entire electoral mandate of 2019 was vitiated by the "unlawful snooping" but added that it may have "helped" the BJP to score that victory which has been "tainted" by the allegations.

Last Sunday, an international media consortium reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers, including of two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India, could have been targeted for hacking through the Pegasus spyware of the Israeli firm NSO.

The government has been denying all Opposition allegations in the matter. Referring to IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's statement in Parliament, Chidambaram said he is obviously a very "clever minister" and therefore the statement has been "very cleverly worded". "He denies that there was any unauthorised surveillance. He does not deny that there was surveillance. He does not deny that there was authorised surveillance. Surely he knows the difference between authorised surveillance and unauthorised surveillance."

"If Pegasus spyware was used, who acquired it? Was it acquired by the government or by one of its agencies," he asked. He also asked the government to come clean on the amount paid on it.

Chidambaram said the matter also raises issues of national security if the government says that it did not conduct surveillance. "Asked about Home Minister Amit Shah's assertion that the allegations were aimed at humiliating India at the world stage, Chidambaram said Shah chose his words very carefully and did not deny that there was surveillance.

If the home minister is unable to categorically deny that Indian telephones were infiltrated by the spyware, then obviously he must take responsibility for this "scandal" happening under his watch, Chidambaram said.

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