A new political storm erupted over an investigation by the New York Times that said the Indian government had purchased Israeli NSO group’s Pegasus software in July 2017 in order to carry out targeted surveillance on citizens, claiming that high-level visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even a U.N. vote on a Palestinian organisation was part of a larger backroom deal.
The revelations that come just two days before the Budget Session of Parliament has provided fresh ammunition to the opposition parties to corner the government on the issue. The opposition parties attacked the government, accusing it of “misleading” parliament and the Supreme Court on the issue on Saturday after the NYT report was published, while the Congress party said the alleged use of spyware on opposition leaders, Supreme Court judges, journalists and activists was an “act of treason”, and said they would raise the issue in the upcoming budget session as well.
