Editorial: Come clean on Pegasus

The revelation that the Central government did not cooperate with the Supreme Court-appointed technical committee on the Pegasus scam does not come as a surprise. It fits into a pattern of systematic obfuscation of the NDA government on the issue of snooping on the opposition leaders, dissidents and critics. Again, not surprisingly, the court-appointed panel […]

The revelation that the Central government did not cooperate with the Supreme Court-appointed technical committee on the Pegasus scam does not come as a surprise. It fits into a pattern of systematic obfuscation of the NDA government on the issue of snooping on the opposition leaders, dissidents and critics. Again, not surprisingly, the court-appointed panel could not conclusively establish if the Israeli spyware was indeed used to infiltrate the smartphones it examined. The committee of experts, which probed allegations of unauthorised use of Israeli NSO Group spyware Pegasus software for surveillance, examined 29 phones and found some malware in 5 of them but could not say with certainty whether Pegasus spyware was used. The fact that the Centre chose not to cooperate with the probe indicates that it has a lot to hide from the public. Instead of treating the probe panel report as a vindication of its position, the government must come clean on the controversy and make all the details public. An international media consortium reported last July that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers of activists, journalists and political leaders were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware. Revelations that governments around the world were using military-grade spyware from NSO to eavesdrop on private conversations sent shock waves. Pegasus can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.

In October last year, the apex court had set up a technical committee to probe the matter. The panel has rightly suggested amending the law to protect citizens’ right to privacy and ensure the nation’s cyber security. In its affidavit filed before the apex court in August last year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology refused to confirm or deny whether it used Pegasus spyware for surveillance. Instead, the Centre offered to set up an expert committee to look into the controversy and dispel any wrong narrative spread by certain vested interests. This offer was rightly rejected by the court which took the initiative to constitute a technical committee comprising experts in the field of computer science, cybersecurity and digital forensics. Given the opaque nature of the functioning of government agencies, there is an urgent need for revisiting the surveillance rules and procedures in India as most of them were framed for the pre-internet era. At present, there is no judicial oversight of the surveillance operations carried out by the government. There is not even a parliamentary oversight, which is unusual for a country that takes pride in its democratic values. Privacy is not the singular concern of journalists or social activists but of every citizen. India is yet to frame a law for the protection of data privacy.

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