Pegasus saga: NCP fears foreign powers may be snooping on India
Darpan News Desk IANS, 10 Aug, 2021 11:39 AM
Mumbai, Aug 10 (IANS) Throwing a new dimension to the ongoing Pegasus spyware phone-tapping controversy, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) expressed deep apprehensions that some 'foreign powers' may be snooping on the country, here on Tuesday.
Terming it as "a very serious matter", NCP National Spokesperson and Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik in Maharashtra said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Centre must issue a proper clarification in Parliament.
"The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that it has nothing to do with the Pegasus matter. The Centre must make a proper statement in Parliament through some senior minister to the effect that the government has no links with the NSO Group Technologies," Malik urged.
He said that if the Centre's claim was indeed true, then it becomes even more serious as it could point to some foreign powers snooping on the country and its top institutions and individuals.
"The phones of several opposition leaders, Supreme Court judges, Election Commission of India, lawyers, journalists, industrialists have been tapped, but the MoD claims it has no links with Pegasus. Then who is responsible for this," Malik asked.
In view of this, the NCP leader said it was imperative for the Centre to immediately order a probe into the matter to reveal the truth, as the Congress demanded a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
Malik's comments came a day after the Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt informed the Rajya Sabha that the MoD has not had any transactions with the NSO Group Technologies of Israel, as Parliament deadlock continues with the opposition firm on a debate in the house.
The complainant alleged that the 61-year-old spiritual leader had stated that "if the court rules against a temple (in Ayodhya), there will be bloodshed in the country and India will have a Syria- like situation".
Breaking protocol, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received French President Emmanuel Macron at the airport when he arrived here on Friday on a four-day visit to India, during the course of which the two leaders will co-chair the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Sufi singer Pyare Lal Wadali is no more. He suffered a heart attack yesterday at about 11:00 pm after which he was immediately taken to Fortis Hospital, Amritsar.
A 22-year-old woman allegedly strangulated her one-year-old daughter to death before hanging herself from a ceiling fan in her one-room apartment at Budhanpur village near Sector 16 here on Wednesday.
