‘Big Brother is watching you.’
This iconic line from George Orwell’s dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty Four must have crossed the minds of the ‘chosen few’ recently—comprising over 40 senior journalists, opposition leaders, government officials, Constitutional appointees, and rights activists in this country—when it was reported in the media that phone numbers of 300 Indians were allegedly found by the Pegasus Project—a purported exposé by 17 news organizations—on a database of hacked or to-be-hacked targets. Among the chosen, according to the report, are Rahul Gandhi, election strategist Prashant Kishor, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, virologist Gagandeep Kang and a Supreme Court staffer who had accused the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment in 2019. These people’s phones were already breached or were listed as potential targets by the spyware tool Pegasus, as per the revelations.
The exposé has revealed that at least 10 governments are customers of the Israeli NSO Group, which is a tech company having contracts with 45 countries, and makes Pegasus. Reportedly these countries are: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the UAE. Worldwide, some 50,000 phone numbers were chosen by clients of the NSO Group for hacking into. The numbers allegedly included those of France’s President Emmanuel Macron and 13 other heads of state. Reporting by media outlets including The Guardian, Le Monde and The Washington Post found that nearly 200 journalists from various organizations were on the list.
What is Pegasus? Pegasus is a spyware tool—a hacking software—which allows the hackers access to your phone's camera, microphone, files, photos, and even encrypted messages and emails. Basically, the entire phone. It affects both Android and iOS devices. All the hackers need to do is to call on WhatsApp the phone they want to infect. The receiver doesn't even need to answer the call for that to take place. The spyware can also be sent via email and text messages. Easy-peasy.
How would you know if your phone has been infected with Pegasus? The answer is that you won’t. And what should you do if you suspect it is? Cyber security experts say that the only way to get completely rid of Pegasus is to discard the infected phone altogether. Once you have replaced the device, ensure that all the apps that you install are up-to-date and have the latest software version.
President Macron has done just that, and has called the Israeli PM to give him a piece of his mind.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged that her phone has been ‘snooped on for years’ with Pegasus and other spyware. Rahul Gandhi calls it ‘treason on Indians.’ There has been outrage amongst many, indifference amongst some and mostly silence from the government. The NSO Group, maker of the spyware, has denied any connection with the list of targets. ‘Enough is enough,’ they have said, and that they ‘will no longer respond to media inquiries.’ Hmmm…
Should we be bothered about this spying? After all, we are not VIPs. We’re obeying the laws and living our lives quietly. We are all below the radar of those alleged to be watching, right?
Maybe so, but I think we should be bothered. Tomorrow it could be you or me. What is there to stop ‘them’ from randomly casting their net farther and wider? As a tax paying, law abiding citizen of this democratic country I have a few questions and the answers coming from the present Government do not exactly fill my being with a comforting, warm glow.
Firstly, is this true that 300 Indians were selected to be spied on? Who was using the Pegasus spyware? Well, not one, but seventeen news organizations have collectively researched and brought out the list under this Project. Therefore I think it must be true. There has been no categorical denial from the Union government that over 300 Indian mobile telephone numbers were targeted by Pegasus. The Govt’s responses on 18 and 19 July, as well as in 2019, seem to hold no one accountable for the illegal act. In other words, though Pegasus was deployed, no one deployed it. Just like no one died this year of Covid due to lack of oxygen cylinders, and no one attacked JNU students in their own campus last year.
Secondly, since there is no denial, why was this done and on what basis was the selection made? The government has cited national security reasons for not divulging information on who was spied upon in 2017 to 2019, who are currently under surveillance and who were the people sifting through the calls and messages of the ‘chosen.’ But the targeted people seem to be mainly those who ask questions of this government. I’d like to know how Rahul Gandhi, Prashant Kishor, former CEC Ashok Lavasa, virologist Gagandeep Kang and Mamata Banerjee are threats to national security.
Thirdly, even if the Govt thinks it necessary to spy on these targets, can it guarantee that the data gathered will stay within our Govt? I don’t think so. We don’t even know if the people listening to the recordings are government employees or if the task has been outsourced to a private entity. The material obtained from the devices can easily be misused for blackmailing and intimidation, can’t it?
Fourthly, is this legal in a democracy? The implication that the government has been snooping on its own citizens, including many going about their lawful business, is serious. While no one would object to the government intercepting communications to track terrorists or prevent crimes, private citizens—including opposition politicians—enjoy a fundamental right to privacy, don’t they? For the ruling party to use Pegasus to obtain information on its political opponents would not just be unethical but a misuse of taxpayers’ money for partisan political purposes. It would also, I think, be illegal.
(Pegasus spyware may have played a role in toppling Congress-JDS govt in Karnataka in 2019, according to a news report. You know, intercepting of calls, emails and text messages of key political players in Karnataka who are on the list.)
Next, why is the Govt not announcing an independent investigation into this if they have nothing to hide? Why don’t we clear the air with an independent inquiry? (Not by our so-called ‘independent’ Investigation Agencies, please!). The Israeli Parliament has launched a commission to probe Pegasus. The French Court has launched a probe into Pegasus. The Mexican President is probing corruption & the misuse of Pegasus. But what is our Govt doing? It is conducting a raid by the Income Tax Dept on those media houses who have reported uncomfortable facts about Covid 19 and the Pegasus snooping.
Yes, readers, you should be bothered about this. If today you’re okay with phone hacking, tomorrow it could be your phone—your messages, emails, contact list and photos—in the hands of Big Brother.
Then what next if we remain silent? EVM hacking at the next election? If that doesn’t bother you, I rest my case.
Beetashok Chatterjee is the author of ‘Driftwood’, a collection of stories about Life at Sea and ‘The People Tree’, another collection of stories about ordinary people with extraordinary experiences. A retired merchant ship’s captain by profession, he lives in New Delhi with his memories of living more than 40 years on the waves.
His book is available on Amazon. Click here.
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