New Delhi | Ramakant Chaudhary: You have heard the famous Bollywood romantic number: “Dhhere Dheere Bol Koi Sun Na Le Sun Na Le Koi Sun Na Le…” The song was picturesquely filmed to caution love birds in reel-life but now it has given a wakeup call for one and all in real-life that their voice is being eavesdropped, privacy being infringed upon and security being threatened. All this is being done by none other than the smartphone which has become part and parcel of your life. Pegasus spyware can stealthily enter phones and all operations could be hacked like Corona infects the body and holds control of functioning of human cells. In layman’s words, the phone is yours but it is operated by some others who could peep into your privacy. The smartphone, which has become inseparable for human life, can spy on you or it could be Peeping Tom. Beware, your every activity could be watched by accessing the camera of your smartphone with the help of Pegasus, a brazen attack on your personal freedom. Just imagine, if a woman’s phone is subjected to such shadowy surveillance, an attack on her degnity. The owner of the phone is operationally owned by others.
Much brouhaha happened on the eve of Parliament’s Monsson Session when a global consortium of 17 media organizations broke a story about the State surveillance worldwide. In India, The Wire reported that phone numbers of journalists, activists, Opposition leaders, experts, businessmen, officials, judge and ministers were on a list of potential targets for snooping during different time periods in the last four years. The story exploded on all formats of media and it snowballed into intense political Tu-Tu, Mai-Mai.
French media non-profit Forbidden Stories with the technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab had access to a leak of more than 50,000 records of phone numbers across the world that clients of Israeli tech company NSO Group selected for surveillance. They shared it with the global media consortium, including The Wire in India, in a series called The Pegasus Project. NSO Group has categorically said that their clients are only government agencies, not private ones. It means only the government can purchase Pegasus spyware for State surveillance.
This sparked off a political storm and crippled the session of the House. The Opposition mounted an attack on the ruling establishment. Caught on the back foot, the government defended its position saying that the reports, published a day before the Monsoon Session, suggesting that India used Pegasus for snooping on its citizens were nothing but an attempt to malign the image of India and its democratic establishments. Asked if India has ever used Pegasus, the response of the Union Information Technology minister is mendacious. While the Congress dubbed BJP as the “Bharatiya Jasoos Party ” asking for resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and probing the role of Prime Minister Narednra Modi.
The core issue should not be diluted in such political slugfest as phone surveillance of citizens is totally unacceptable and an illegal invasion of right to privacy and right to dignity. If the allegations of widespread phone interceptions are true, they are a direct attack on the liberty of citizens of India and disrespect to the Article 21 of the Constitution by State actors.
Pegasus can gain access to all details of phone, call history, apps, passwords, browsing history, mails, microphone, camera and capture offline activities and conversations as well even smartphone being switched off. It is highly sophisticated and chilling spyware that can even plant evidence which could incriminate the phone users. By planting evidence in a phone with the help of Pegasus spyware, a person could be implicated in any legal tangle.
Obviously, the mere presence of a number on the list only indicates that the person was a possible candidate for surveillance. Pegasus Project media partners have said that only a technical examination of a phone’s data can establish whether an attempt to hack or successful compromise by the spyware took place.
There are provisions of rules and standard operating procedures that give power to the government to intercept all types of electronic communications for public emergency and public safety. Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, empowers the government agencies to issue directions for interception or decryption of any information through any computer resource, including smartphone, in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of the country.
The competent authority in the central government has authorized 10 agencies for the purpose: Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, National Investigation Agency, R&AW, Directorate of Signal Intelligence and Delhi Police Commissioner.
Needless to say that the Pegasus scandal is a matter of great concern for the sovereignty of India. It is not merely a surveillance tool rather a cyber-weapon being unleashed on the people of India. It could affect Indian polity and electoral system that could subvert democratic establishments. The widespread and unaccountable state surveillance of law abiding and taxpaying citizens is highly condemnable. Privacy does not mean to hide something from public view, rather it is a personal autonomy and freedom of thoughts that cannot be an instrument for others’ purposes.
It is obvious merely a list of names does not buttress the fact that their phones have been subjected to surveillance. The government insinuates that there is a global conspiracy to defame India. But this statement is not enough; rather there should be a firm declaration that a proper investigation is needed to expose the sinister design behind the sleazy Pegasus affair. People feel bad if the government’s whataboutery goes saying that the previous regime was also indulged in indiscriminate mass surveillance and phone tapping. Blame game could further compound the Pegasus problems. The government and Opposition should sit together to draft a concrete law to checkmate such incidents. Also, there must be a global effort to stop the misuse of spywares and strategies should be made to sharpen the eyes of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ of the State to spy for national interests. Spying on citizens for political gains means there is a trust deficit between the government and people that does not augur well for democracy.
(Ramakant Chaudhary is a political-social commentator and journalist who has worked with The Times of India, Hindustan Times (Mint), Dainik Jagran Group, The Pioneer and The Political and Business Daily. The views expressed are personal.)
