New Delhi: When it comes to the government's stand on pegasus spyware and its use, the government is avoiding saying anything about it. In the Lok Sabha on Monday, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav effectively spoke on November 28, 2019, on behalf of his predecessor Ravi Shankar Prasad. Ravi Shankar Prasad was replying in the Upper House when the media reported on WhatsApp revelations that journalists and human rights activists were targets of monitoring operators using Pegasus.

Both Ravi Shankar Prasad Prasad and Ashwini Vaishnav now brushed aside important questions raised by opposition members. The question is whether the Government or its agencies got pegasus and if so, what were the conditions for its use? Instead, the two cited sections of the law repeat the claim that all electronic interceptions follow due process. The case could now go further in view of the high-profile names that have emerged in the Pegasus espionage case and the complete rejection of questions raised by the government from the opposition.

The 2019 debate is a foreboding of what could happen next. At that time, veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh raised the issue in the Upper House through a calling attention motion saying that WhatsApp hack can have only three possibilities, either the government is legally engaged in espionage, or it has been allowed to be done illegally or it was done illegally without the knowledge of the government.

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