The Congress on Tuesday demanded a probe by a Joint
Parliamentary Committee into the use of the Pegasus hacking software.
The opposition party stalled proceedings regarding
the issue in both houses of Parliament and demanded a thorough probe into the
charges of snooping on journalists, politicians, ministers, judges, and other
using Israeli Pegasus spyware.
Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil asked the
Government to tell clearly whether it has purchased the Pegasus spyware or not
and hold a joint parliamentary probe.
“We had given adjournment notices in both Rajya Sabha
and Lok Sabha to hold a discussion on the violation of national security and
the fundamental rights under the Constitution over the phone tapping issue,”
said Gohil.
He further said that the party’s demand is that the
Centre should order a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the controversy
of snooping and phone tapping.
“The minister, who was trying to create confusion
on the matter should answer clearly whether the government has bought the
Pegasus spyware or not. If yes, then the government should order a joint
parliamentary committee probe to investigate the entire matter,” Gohil added.
The government rejected the allegations of snooping
on politicians, journalists and others using Pegasus software on Monday in Lok
Sabha. Alleging that such attempts were being made to malign Indian democracy,
the centre asserted that illegal surveillance was not possible with checks and
balances in the country’s laws.
It is to be mentioned that, prosecutors in Paris
said that they had opened a probe into allegations that Moroccan intelligence
services used the Israeli malware Pegasus to spy on several French journalists.
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