By akademiotoelektronik, 19/09/2022

The "Pegasus" scandal breaks out in India

In India, suspicion about telephone surveillance is not new. It was confirmed in 2019, when WhatsApp admitted that some of its users, including 121 in India, had been infiltrated by the Israeli company NSO, creator of the Pegasus spyware.

→ EXPLANATION. "Project Pegasus": what we know about this new case of mass surveillance

But the extent and the targets of the espionage revealed on Sunday July 18 by 17 international media, including the Indian site The Wire, are unprecedented, in a country which defines itself as "the largest democracy in the world".

Ministers, judges, journalists monitored

More than 300 Indians were potentially spied on using this software, according to data established from 2018 and collected by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. The telephone numbers of the 300 concerned have been verified, although few cell phones have been analyzed to identify the trace of the infiltrations.

→ READ. Pegasus: who are the French politicians potentially victims of espionage?

The list includes two ministers, 40 journalists, a judge, an Electoral Commission official, MPs, opposition leaders including the main figure, Rahul Gandhi, and dozens of activists, academics and other personalities. Some have been prominent political opponents of Narendra Modi in election campaigns, amid growing control by his Hindu nationalist government.

Regime denial

For its part, New Delhi claims that no illegal espionage has been undertaken and that there is no "concrete basis or truth associated with it", but never denied the purchase of the Pegasus software. In addition, the law on the protection of personal data is a law in the works in India, leaving gray areas.

→ DEBATE. Pegasus: Are our leaders reckless with their cell phones?

Interior Minister Amit Shah said the report was amplified by "disruptors" in order to "humiliate India on the world stage". Unaware of the international scale of the scandal, Amit Shah sees a desire to defame his country by the choice of the date of the revelations, which coincided with the opening of the monsoon parliamentary session in India… Since then, senior officials of his party took over, denouncing an "international conspiracy" and castigating the "negative" atmosphere maintained by the opposition.

The opposition denounces “the murder of democracy”

“This scandal is not only a matter of individual freedoms; it is about democracy in India, comments Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. The political pressure that the government will face will be very strong. One of the requests is that it explains who bought this software and at what price? Several major newspaper editorials have called for accountability.

Parliamentary sessions have been disrupted by controversy and Shashi Tharoor, an MP from the opposition Congress party, will lead a symposium on "data security" on July 28. "This is the murder of democracy," his party tweeted. A thorough investigation must be launched as soon as possible. Mamata Banerjee, regional leader and major political opponent of Narendra Modi, called on the opposition to unite in the face of a "surveillance state". And behind the scandal, it is now the entire opposition which, in unison, calls for the opening of an investigation.