After thewire.in reported that a large number of influential people including politicians, journalists, activists, former judges, bureaucrats were being snooped through their phones using the Pegasus software, it created a massive outrage in the entire country. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a press conference called it as an act of ‘treason’ accusing the Prime Minister and the Home Minister of the country. While the opposition has constantly been raising this issue and asking the central government as to who did this, there has not been any clear reply yet from the government as to whether they purchased the software or not and whether they conducted snooping on this long list of important people in the country.
The IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav in Parliament criticised the media reports on Pegasus and said that illegal surveillance is not possible in our country considering the strict laws. It clearly seems that the Central Government is in no mood to probe this issue.
Meanwhile an interesting event took place in West Bengal when the Chief Minister of Bengal set up an inquiry commission of two former judges, retired Supreme Court Justice Madan B. Lokur and retired Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya.
Under ‘The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952’, any State Government or the Central Government may appoint a commission of inquiry into any matter which is of public importance and inquire into the matter. The Commission has all the powers to a civil court in conducting the inquiry. Also, the commission can summon and enforce the attendance of any person from any part of India for their examination. Since the names of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and master political strategist Prashant Kishor are on the list, therefore the cause of action arises in West Bengal also.
The matter concerns the issue of right to privacy and we hope that the truth comes out.
