New Delhi: Amidst Facebook-owned WhatsApp's announcement that Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Pegasus, the Congress on Sunday claimed that senior party leader Priyanka Gandhi had received a message from WhatsApp informing her that her phone was suspected to have been hacked.
The party, however, did not say exactly when Gandhi received the message.
"I want to tell that Priyanka Gandhi also received a similar message from WhatsApp around the same time," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, responding to a question about Praful Patel and Mamata Banerjee receiving messages from the Facebook-owned messaging platform.
Gandhi received the message around the same time when WhatsApp was sending similar messages to those whose phones were allegedly hacked, Surjewala said.
BJP hits back
Meanwhile, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back saying the grand old party was "imagining" things.
Taking to Twitter to negate the claim, BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya said, "Haven't we seen the Congress imagining things that didn't exist?"
"Remember them claiming that Rahul Gandhi's life was in danger when a green light, off a video camera, flashed on his face during a media briefing. Well, that's the level of their leaders' credibility in public life," he tweeted.
Malviya was referring to an incident in the thick of election in April when the Congress had termed flashing of a green light on Gandhi's face as a "serious security breach". But it turned out to be an embarrassment as the light was found to be emanating from a camera person's mobile who was working for the AICC.
The Home Ministry spokesperson had clarified, "The Director (SPG) has informed it that they have gone through the video clipping of the incident. The "green light" shown in the clipping was found to be that of a mobile phone used by the AICC photographer, who was videographing the impromptu press interaction of Rahul Gandhi near the collectorate at Amethi."
Raising of the April incident by Malviya to rubbish the Congress snoopgate claim has triggered a verbal duel between the two parties and the Congress is now expected to counter it.
The BJP's reaction came minutes after Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala held a press conference and claimed, "The illegal spyware 'Pegasus' was used to hack cell phones in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. The BJP government was fully aware of it. Despite repeated reminders from Facebook, the government didn't act."
Two parliamentary panels on WhatsApp snooping
Two parliamentary panels headed by Congress leaders have decided to examine the WhatsApp snooping case and will seek details from top government officials including the Home Secretary.
Describing the entire WhatsApp snooping episode as worrisome, Congress leader Anand Sharma who chairs the parliamentary standing committing on home affairs, said this issue will be taken up at the panel's next meeting on November 15.
The Home Secretary is scheduled to brief the panel on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the next meeting. "In that meeting this issue will also be discussed and we will seek details from the secretary," Sharma said.
Concerned about this development, Shashi Tharoor, who heads the parliamentary standing committee on information technology, said the panel would share its concerns.
He said he will consult other members by email on the matter.
In any case Cybersecurity is a major issue on our agenda and we are definitely going to take this up under that rubric. And we will be seeking clarifications from the government, Tharoor said.
He said as the WhatsApp NSO issue has emerged in the open it is important to ensure that no other social media platform can be similarly used, and the panel will seek to learn how exactly the government can ensure that.
It is vital that as a democracy, India remains vigilant about the risk of our freedoms being eroded by technological means. We must not, at any price, become a surveillance state like China, he said.
Meanwhile, the WhatsApp had said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, that is reportedly behind the technology that helped unnamed entities hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users.
These users span across four continents and include diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.
Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has askedWhatsApp for a report on the allegations.
Facebook owned WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, of which India accounts for about 400 million.
(With inputs from PTI.)
