Addressing a press conference, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala jointly said that the snooping is an "act of treason".

 

"The Modi Government is the deployer and executor of the illegal and unconstitutional snooping and spying racket through Israeli surveillance spyware Pegasus & the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is himself involved!"

 

"This is a brazen 'Hijack of Democracy' & 'An Act of Treason', they said.

 

Surjewala said, Modi Government purchased Pegasus Spyware in 2017 and other military technology as the "centrepieces" of a package including "weapons and intelligence gear worth roughly $2 billion" from Israel during PM Modi's visit. It is not a coincidence that the Budget of National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) reporting to NSA went up from Rs 33 crore to Rs 333 crore in 2017-18.

 

He said, Modi Government deployed Pegasus spyware for snooping and spying upon Rahul Gandhi and his staff members; Former PM Deve Gowda, Former Chief Ministers - Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy; Former BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia; BJP Cabinet Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel, his wife and staff; Present IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw & his wife; OSD of Union Minister, Smriti Irani; Abhishek Banerjee, MP & nephew of Ms Mamata Banerjee; Praveen Togadia, former head of VHP and others.

 

The Congress alleged that not only this, Pegasus spyware target list also included Supreme Court judges; Election Commission of India; CBI Director, advocates, activists and even journalists of prominent media organisations.

 

The party accused the Modi government of misleading the Supreme Court which directly questioned it on the purchase and use of the questionable software.