Shameful attack, says Amarinder on Pegasus spyware scandal
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 Jul, 2021 10:42 AM
Chandigarh, July 19 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday condemned the alleged hacking of private phones of top political leaders, journalists, businessmen, scientists, constitutional authorities and others as a "shameful attack not just on individual privacy but also on national security" by the BJP-led government at the Centre.
As the Pegasus spyware scandal unravelled within and outside Parliament, he termed it a "shocking assault" on India's democratic polity by the Union government, which had compromised the national security with "this blatantly disgraceful act".
The Chief Minister said that with such snooping, which simply could not have been undertaken by the Israeli company without the Central government's go-ahead, the NDA government had put sensitive information into the hands of various global agencies, governments and organisations with the potential to misuse it against the country.
"This is not only an attack on individual freedom but also on the security of our nation," he said, urging the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and take action against the NDA government.
"The Central government cannot get away with this. They have committed a horrendous sin, and they have to be made to pay for it," said Amarinder Singh, quipping that "nobody has the right to intrude into the lives of its people, leave alone enter their bedrooms, as this government has done".
Terming the developments as part of a pattern of the BJP-led government to "destroy all democratic institutions and stifle the voice of the opposition", he lashed out at the Centre "for the reprehensible act, which has set a new low in India's democratic history".
"No government in any part of the world has ever put the security and safety of its own institutions and people at stake in this manner before," said Amarinder Singh.
A group of eminent Muslims on Thursday expressed the desire to hand over the land owned by the Muslims in Ayodhya to the Supreme Court which may, in turn, hand it over to the Central government.
Suspicion has now arisen over three more deaths linked to Jolly, the woman who is the prime suspect in six mysterious deaths in her family, and who is currently in judicial custody even as reports have surfaced that she was also planning to eliminate two children.
Naveen Dalal, along with another man, had allegedly attacked Umar Khalid at the Constitution Club in Delhi on August 13 last year. At the time, the two men had told the police that they had planned to disrupt the event that was being held at the Constitution Club.
