Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 3: Union Minister Anurag Thakur reacted angrily to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that he was monitored by Israeli spyware Pegasus on Friday, saying it is his habit to make unsubstantiated claims and ‘defame’ India abroad.
Rahul Gandhi said at a speech at Cambridge University that his phone was being spied on through Pegasus and that intelligence agents had advised him to be ‘careful’ about what he said on calls. The Union minister’s remark follows Gandhi’s claim.
“I had Pegasus on my phone. A large number of politicians had Pegasus on their phones. I have been called by Intelligence officers who told me, ‘Please be careful about what you are saying on the phone because we are sort of recording the stuff’. So this is the constant pressure that we feel. Cases on the Opposition,” the Congress leader said in his address.
“I have got a number of criminal liable cases for things that should under no circumstances be criminal liable cases. That’s what we are trying to defend,” he added.
Rahul was retaliated against by Thakur, who questioned why Rahul had not brought his phone in for inspection by the committee assembled by the Supreme Court to examine into the claims of government surveillance.
“What was his compulsion that he could not submit his mobile phone (before the committee) to have it checked for Pegasus spyware? He is already on bail in a (National Herald) corruption case. What was there in his phone that he needed to hide? Why did he and other leaders (who Rahul claims were allegedly spied on) not submit their phones? It has become his habit to defame India on foreign shores,” Thakur said.
“It could be Rahul Gandhi’s hatred towards the Prime Minister (that makes him raise such allegations). But it also raises larger questions on the Congress’ agenda to defame the country repeatedly from a foreign land, sometimes from a foreign friend,” while not naming billionaire investor George Soros, who was recently in the news over his statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a security conference in Munich, Thakur said.
“Has Congress lost its faith in our constitutional institutions? Will Congress continue to raise questions about India’s democracy? Rahul Gandhi left no stone unturned in defaming India on foreign land,” the Union minister added.
