Lok Sabha member and BJYM national president Tejasvi Surya slammed the opposition's claims of snooping on prominent citizens using the Pegasus spyware as 'baseless' and questioned the timing of 'revelations'.

 

"The opposition regularly engages in 'shoot and scoot' to disturb the functioning of Parliament. This time as well, the ecosystem has manufactured a wild allegation that the Government has allegedly used the Pegasus software to spy on several individuals," Surya said.

 

He pointed out that this supposed investigation was done three years after individuals were supposedly targeted. "The result as per their own admission: 'The presence of a phone number in the data does alone not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack'. This is clearly a conspiracy based on conjectures and false claims to harm the image of the government," Surya added.

 

He stated that there is no proof, no actual list of targeted people in the public domain, there is no information on the actual clients or users of Pegasus and it's all smoke and no fire.

 

"The opposition's actions are clearly attempts to divert the country's attention from serious issues. The involvement of dubious organisations like Amnesty International, best known for anti-India propaganda and charges of suspicious funding from abroad, is revealing of the vested interests at play. The citizens of the country will no longer be fooled by these desperate tactics of the opposition to stall the functioning of Parliament and democracy," Surya said.

 

He alleged that the opposition has time and again tried to create a narrative against the country by spreading false information and lies, and time and again it has been discredited by the people of India.