The Narendra Modi government’s refusal to cooperate with the Supreme Court-appointed committee in the Pegasus case means that it had something to hide, the Congress alleged on Thursday.
“PM and his govt’s non-cooperation with the SC appointed committee is an acceptance that they had something deeper to hide and want to crush democracy,” tweeted former Congress president Rahul Gandhi with the hashtag #Pegasus.
Mr. Gandhi’s number was among Indian public figures whose phones were suspected to be targeted using the Pegasus spyware.
“Everybody knows this weapon was used and it dented democracy. This weapon is against the law and Constitution. How can they (government) give the answer. Sometimes not giving an answer is also an answer, the government has made it clear (by not giving answers) that they used Pegasus against democracy,” Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh told reporters at a press conference.
The Congress spokesperson said that by staying silent the government had made it clear that it used the Pegasus spyware against Rahul Gandhi, other Opposition leaders, scientists, the Election Commissioner, Registrar of the Supreme Court, civil society activists and senior journalists.
“I hope the Supreme Court will treat this not giving of an answer as an answer and take strict action against the government in this matter. We have been asking from day one why the government used Pegasus and under what law,” he said.
A Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice N. V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli after perusing the report submitted by former apex court Justice R. V. Raveendran had said, “One thing (the) committee has said is that the Government of India has not cooperated.”
The Supreme Court-appointed panels probing the alleged use of Pegasus found some kind of malware in five mobile phones out of the 29 examined but it could not be concluded that it was due to the Israeli spyware.
