NEW DELHI: Claiming that PM Narendra Modi’s soul was inside Adani, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the alleged surveillance attempt on opposition leaders was a direct consequence of the recent expose and scrutiny of the top industrialist from Gujarat. He said the government was welcome to snoop on him and INDIA bloc leaders but they would not back down, adding that surveillance was the work of “thieves and criminals”, and not the sign of a leader who was confident.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate and T S Singhdeo, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AAP’s Raghav Chadha and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi were among the leaders to have received the Apple alert cautioning them about surveillance attempts.
While Yechury wrote to the PM and flagged the “gross violation of democratic rights of citizens”, Moitra accused the BJP leadership of having a “history of ‘peeping Tom’ behaviour”. “In 2021, there was Pegasus spyware they brought from Israel and it went to court and nothing came out of it. This is the second time. Obviously, 2024 (elections) is coming up and they want to distract from the main issues,” she said.
Congress, meanwhile, said the government, in its statement, had refused to deny snooping on opposition leaders. “Ashwini Vaishnaw, your bluff and bluster is not fooling anybody. Your reluctance to issue a categorical denial itself shows you have a lot to hide. Your call to Apple to join an investigation is even more laughable. How can the criminal himself be the prosecutor?” Venugopal said.
Addressing a press conference, Rahul said, “Modi’s soul is inside Adani. As we touch Adani, there is intelligence, snooping, CBI. I used to think that in this regime, PM ranks first, followed by Adani and then Shah. But its actually Adani, then PM and then Shah. Now, we have understood the politics of India.” Rahul said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate and T S Singhdeo, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AAP’s Raghav Chadha and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi were among the leaders to have received the Apple alert cautioning them about surveillance attempts.
While Yechury wrote to the PM and flagged the “gross violation of democratic rights of citizens”, Moitra accused the BJP leadership of having a “history of ‘peeping Tom’ behaviour”. “In 2021, there was Pegasus spyware they brought from Israel and it went to court and nothing came out of it. This is the second time. Obviously, 2024 (elections) is coming up and they want to distract from the main issues,” she said.
Congress, meanwhile, said the government, in its statement, had refused to deny snooping on opposition leaders. “Ashwini Vaishnaw, your bluff and bluster is not fooling anybody. Your reluctance to issue a categorical denial itself shows you have a lot to hide. Your call to Apple to join an investigation is even more laughable. How can the criminal himself be the prosecutor?” Venugopal said.
Addressing a press conference, Rahul said, “Modi’s soul is inside Adani. As we touch Adani, there is intelligence, snooping, CBI. I used to think that in this regime, PM ranks first, followed by Adani and then Shah. But its actually Adani, then PM and then Shah. Now, we have understood the politics of India.” Rahul said.
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