Over a dozen Opposition leaders and journalists received email alerts from U.S.-based tech giant Apple on Monday night, informing them that their digital devices were being targeted by “state-sponsored attackers”. On Tuesday, the Union government said it would launch an investigation into the alerts, though the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw described Opposition claims of snooping as “vague”.
Prominent Opposition leaders who posted screenshots of these alerts on social media included Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and K.C. Venugopal. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi told journalists that people working in his office had also received alerts.
Mr. Gandhi alleged that “snooping” is carried out the moment Opposition leaders “touch” industrialist Gautam Adani. Ms. Moitra leveled similar allegations throughout the day, saying on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that the episode was a “desperate distraction” from reporting on allegedly corrupt dealings involving the Adani Group.
