Pegasus scandal: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh says BJP govt risked national security

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday condemned the hacking of private phones of political leaders, journalists, businessmen, scientists, constitutional authorities and others as a shameful attack not just on individual privacy, but also on national security by the BJP-led government at the Centre.
As the Pegasus spyware scandal unravelled within and outside Parliament, the CM termed it a “shocking assault” on India’s democratic polity by the Union government, which had compromised national security with the act, which he described as shameful.
The CM said such snooping could not have been undertaken by the Israeli company without the central government’s go-ahead. He said this showed the NDA government had put sensitive information into the hands of global agencies, governments and organisations with the potential to misuse it against the country.
“This is not only an attack on individual freedom, but also on the security of our nation,” he said, urging the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and take action against the NDA government. “The central government cannot get away with this. They have committed a horrendous sin, and they have to be made to pay for it,” said Captain Amarinder. “Nobody has the right to intrude into the lives of its people, leave alone enter their bedrooms, as this government has done.”
Terming the developments as part of a pattern of the BJP-led government of India to destroy all democratic institutions and stifle the voice of the opposition, the chief minister lashed out at the central government for the reprehensible act, “which has set a new low in India’s democratic history”. “No government in any part of the world has ever put the security and safety of its own institutions and people at stake in this manner before,” said Amarinder, adding that there appeared to be a global conspiracy to target India.