Project Pegasus: Numbers of Rahul Gandhi, Prashant Kishor, Ashok Lavasa & Ashwini Vaishnaw were spyware targets

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, election strategist Prashant Kishor, former Election Commissioner Askhok Lavasa, ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Patel, TMC leader Abhisekh Banerjee, the entire family of a Supreme Court staffer who had accused the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment in 2019 are among those whose phones were either breached or were listed as potential targets by the Israeli company NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, The Wire, a digital news platform, reported on Monday.

The Wire stated that two mobile phone accounts used by Rahul Gandhi and the numbers of five of his social friends and acquaintances were in the list of 300 verified Indian phone numbers that are a part of the leaked database which was first accessed by French non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, and then shared with 16 media partners.

Being a part of that database does not confirm whether an account has been breached and this can only be confirmed by forensic analysis of the handsets being used by the persons in question at that time. Gandhi’s phones were not among the handsets which were analysed and he has reportedly stopped using those numbers now.

The Wire also reported that three phone numbers belonging to the Supreme Court staffer who had accused the then Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment in 2019 were part of the leaked database. The staffer was dismissed from service in December 2018 — she recorded her allegations in a sworn affidavit on April 20, 2019 and was marked as a person of interest only days later. Eight numbers belonging to her husband and two of his brothers were also part of the database — a total of 11 numbers associated with the complainant and her family were reportedly selected for targeting.

Ashok Lavasa, the only member of the three-man Election Commission to rule that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had violated the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, was also selected as a potential target for surveillance.

The number of a senior assistant editor of The Indian Express, who had reported in 2019 that there was a serious difference of opinion within the Election Commission when Lavasa had opposed the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, was also a part of the leaked database.

The Wire also stated the phone of poll strategist Prashant Kishor was broken into using Pegasus in the midst of the heated campaign for the West Bengal Assembly polls. The report also added that the leaked database also features the mobile numbers of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, Ashwini Viashnaw, who was recently inducted into the Cabinet as the Minister of IT, Communications and Elections, and Railways, and MoS Prahlad Patel.

A founder of election watchdog Association of Democratic Reforms was also the potential target.

On Monday, Vaishnaw said in the Lok Sabha that the Pegasus Project was an attempt “to malign Indian democracy and its well established institutions”. “Those reports had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties including in the Supreme Court. Press reports of July 18, 2021 also seem to be an attempt to malign the Indian democracy and its well-established institutions. India’s established protocols when it comes to surveillance. I am sure my friends in opposition who have been in government for years are very well aware of these protocols. Since they have governed the country they would also be aware that any form of illegal surveillance is not possible with the checks and balances with our laws and robust institutions,” he said.

Referring to the Project Pegasus reports, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said, “There is no single evidence that has surfaced that links the government of India or the BJP. Even those who broke the story have said that the mere fact of a number being in that database is not proof that it was breached.”

He added, “BJP strongly refutes, condemns the baseless and bereft of political propriety comments leveled by Congress against the BJP. It is a new low for a party that has ruled India for more than 50 years.”

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a press release on Monday, stated, “People have often associated this phrase with me in lighter vein but today I want to seriously say — the timing of the selective leaks, the disruptions…Aap Chronology Samajhiye! This is a report by the disrupters for the obstructers. Disrupters are global organisations which do not like India to progress. Obstructers are political players in India who do not want India to progress. People of India are very good at understanding this chronology and connection. And, I want to assure the people of India that the Modi govt’s priority is clear — ‘National Welfare’ and we will keep working to achieve that no matter what happens.”

Project Pegasus reports also dominated the discourse on the first day of the Monsoon Session as Opposition parties targeted the government.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter using the hashtag “Pegasus”. “We know what he’s been reading — everything on your phone,” Gandhi wrote Monday as a tweet-reply to his own post two days ago in which he had asked people, “I’m wondering what you guys are reading these days.”

It is an attack on the democratic foundations of our country. It must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be identified and punished. – Shri @RahulGandhi #PegasusProjecthttps://t.co/K0IPpSGArL

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 19, 2021

Terming it a very serious issue concerning national security, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor demanded an independent judicial or parliamentary committee probe. Since the government has said that it has not done any snooping, this should be probed, he said. “I feel that there should be a thorough independent judicial inquiry or a joint parliamentary committee. We cannot just brush it under the carpet,” he told reporters.

The CPIM said that two years ago, the party had raised in Parliament that this “dangerous spyware” was being used in India as revealed by WhatsApp. “The Modi government’s response had not categorically denied that it engaged the services of NSO (the Israeli tech firm that created the spyware) but claimed that there is no ‘unauthorized surveillance’. With these revelations, it is clear that this government has engaged NSO for such surveillance against its own citizens,” the party said in a statement Monday.

Project Pegasus, a global collaborative investigative project, had earlier revealed that Israeli company NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware targeted over 300 mobile phone numbers in India including that of two serving Ministers in the Narendra Modi government, three Opposition leaders, one constitutional authority, several journalists and business persons.

The Wire, which is part of the collaboration, reported Sunday that the leaked global database of 50,000 telephone numbers was first accessed by French non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, and then shared with 16 media partners — The Guardian, Washington Post, Le Monde, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and 11 other Arab and European organisations.

(With agency inputs)