New Delhi [India], August 25 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday slammed the Congress heavily over the issue of Pegasus spyware and alleged it was a “Leftist party”.
“Today is our day to speak. Congress is a Leftist party, self-established intelligent and an Anti-Government Organisation, that had created a huge ruckus against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Pegasus matter,” Prasad said addressing a press conference after the Supreme Court stated that as per the report no conclusive proof has been found regarding the use of Pegasus spyware in 29 mobile phones examined by the technical committee.
“Today is our day. They had accused us of treason. They did not allow the Monsoon Session to take place. We would like to hear what Rahul Gandhi has to say after the reports,” he added.
Expressing hope the Supreme Court would unveil the truth, Prasad further said that Pegasus is an attack on Indian democracy. It has been used against Chief Ministers and former Prime Minister, he said.
“Rahul Gandhi in his official press conference had alleged that it was a matter of sedition. Would Rahul Gandhi apologise for his remarks that Prime Minister was surveilling his own party and the opposition? These are some major concerns as he did not let the Parliament work,” said Prasad.
He further added that all the ‘ruckus’ around Pegasus was a part of some motivated campaign which has no connection with the truth.
“Various countries in the world use Pegasus but its misuse by India is being more widely talked about across the world. Congress and Rahul Gandhi try to expand their party by spreading lies but they do not understand that the truth always shows up,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had stated that only five of the 29 mobile phones examined by the technical committee were found to be affected by some malware, but not sure if it was Pegasus.
The reports were submitted in three parts, two were of the technical committee and one report of the overseeing committee by a retired judge of the Supreme Court Justice RV Raveendran, said the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the technical committee said that the reports submitted, contained information about malware, information on public research material, and material extracted from private mobile instruments which are confidential and are not for public distribution.
Technical Committee concluded that these five phones were infected with malware because of their poor cyber security.
Earlier, several pleas were filed before the top court on snooping row by senior journalists N Ram, and Sashi Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas of Communist Marxist Party of India (Marxist) and advocate ML Sharma, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.
Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi, who are reported to be on the potential list of snoop targets of Pegasus spyware, had also approached the top court along with The Editors Guild of India (EGI) among others. (ANI)
