New Delhi: The Congress party on Thursday, July 22, held protest marches at many places across the country demanding a Supreme Court-monitored judicial inquiry into the snooping of phones using Israeli Pegasus spyware and the resignation of home minister Amit Shah over the issue.
The party’s state units held protest marches to Raj Bhavans in different states protesting the “blatantly unconstitutional and ruthless phone hacking incidents”.
Congress party workers organised marches as well as sit-in protests at Jammu, Jaipur, Kolkata, Vijayawada, Patna, Ranchi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Raipur, Lucknow and Dehradun, the party said in a statement.
In Bengaluru, prominent Congress leaders, including Siddaramaiah, D.K. Shivkumar, protested outside the state assembly and then marched to Raj Bhavan to demand an investigation into Pegasus spyware attacks that also had played a role in the toppling of the JD (S)-Congress government in Karnataka in 2019. The police stopped them from reaching Raj Bhavan.
Siddaramaiah also submitted a letter addressed to the President of India to the governor demanding a judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge on the alleged reports of spying, the Indian Express reported.
In Chandigarh, led by AICC in-charge of Haryana affairs Vivek Bansal and state Congress chief Kumari Selja, Haryana Congress leaders and workers gathered at the party office here. They staged a protest outside the party office, but as they tried to march towards the Raj Bhavan on foot, police detained them, according to PTI.
In Tamil Nadu’s Sivakashi, Youth Congress members staged a demonstration and broke telephone instruments as a mark of their protest. The protest, led by Virudhunagar East district Youth Congress president, M. K. M. Meenakshisundaram, was held in front of the BSNL office here, The Hindu reported.
In Deharadun, the Uttarakhand unit of Congress staged a protest against the Union government and demanded an inquiry into snooping of over 300 persons, including that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Police personnel try to stop Congress workers from going towards Raj Bhavan, during their protest against the central government over Pegasus issue, in Dehradun, Thursday, July 22, 2021. Photo: PTI.
The Congress leaders and workers began their protest at Dilaram Chowk and tried to march towards Raj Bhavan. However, they were stopped from marching ahead at Hathibarkala police barricading, The Times of India reported.
In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and Congress legislature party leader Aradhna Mishra were detained preemptively before they headed for scheduled protests on Thursday. Several protestors were picked up by police while they were marching towards Raj Bhavan.
Describing the BJP as “Bhartiya Jasus Party”, Lallu slammed the Union government for misusing its power by tapping phones of high-profile persons. He also condemned Income Tax Department’s searches at the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar Group across the country for alleged tax evasion, the Indian Express reported.
Meanwhile, the party’s national leadership came down heavily on the Union government, “There is tremendous outrage amongst Congress leaders and workers against the report of the tapping of phones of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. People have taken great exception to the cowardly and deceitful act of snooping which includes many journalists on the surveillance list.”
The Congress party sought to know from the government whether these hackings were done on the direction of the Modi government and if not why isn’t the government ordering an inquiry to find the people or organisations behind the spying of Union ministers, judicial authorities as also many opposition leaders.
“The deeply shocking news reports, disclosing illegal and unconstitutional hacking of cell phones of Constitutional functionaries, Union cabinet ministers, present and former heads of India’s security forces, senior leaders of the opposition, journalists, lawyers and activists have shaken the faith of the people in the BJP government,” the Congress said in the statement.
The Congress also organised press conferences in all state units to register their protests and highlight the issue in the media over Wednesday and the day before.
Reacting on the reports of alleged snooping, Rahul Gandhi had earlier said, “It is an attack on the democratic foundations of our country. It must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be identified and punished.”
(With PTI inputs)
The Pegasus Project is a collaborative investigation that involves more than 80 journalists from 17 news organisations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories with the technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab. Read all our coverage here.