Chidambaram rakes up Israel envoy's statement; reiterates 'Centre bought Pegasus'

Citing the statement of Israel Ambassador to India Naor Gilon on Thursday, Congress MP P Chidambaram reiterated that the Centre bought the Pegasus spyware. Reacting to the Supreme Court setting up a technical committee to probe the Pegasus controversy, Gilon dubbed it as an "internal issue" of India. At the same time, he asserted that the NSO Group is allowed to sell Pegasus only to governments because of the software's nature. Taking note of this, Chidambaram called upon Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav to admit that the Centre's culpability. 

Taking to Twitter, Chidambaram noted, "So, in India’s case, the buyer was certainly the Government of India. Will the Minister for Telecommunications admit that the buyer of Pegasus was the government of India? If he remains silent, the blot on his report card will remain." 

"Our position is very clear. NSO- the company which invented Pegasus is a private company in Israel. Yet they still need to get an export license because of the nature of the software. It needs an export license from Israel. And we make a point not enabling it to export it to non-state actors. So no organization or individual can get it," Gilon told the media. 

SC constitutes 3-member committee

The SC bench comprising CJI NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli's order came on petitions filed by advocate ML Sharma, CPI MP John Brittas, Association for Democratic Reforms founder Jagdeep Chhokar, Narendra Mishra, three journalists and the Editors Guild of India. Maintaining that privacy is important for all citizens, the CJI affirmed that the restrictions can be imposed only to safeguard national security. Stressing that surveillance affects the rights of the people, he opined that this technology may have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press.

Expressing concern about the involvement of a foreign agency in spying on Indian citizens, the CJI observed, "The state cannot get a free pass every time by raising national security concerns. No omnibus prohibition can be called against judicial review. The Centre should have justified its stand here and not render the court a mute spectator."

The technical committee will comprise three members- National Forensic Sciences University Dean Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham professor Dr. Prabhakaran P and IIT Bombay professor Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste. The functioning of this committee will be overseen by retired Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran and will be assisted by ex-IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Dr. Sundeep Oberoi. The panel has been directed to prepare the report after a thorough inquiry and place its report before the SC expeditiously.