The Pegasus malware has posed new challenges to the government and marred its image. The phone-hacking of politically exposed people, Indian journalists, social activists, etc. has acted as a catalyst in the already burning issue. According to the reports published by French NGO Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, revealed that the Israeli spyware named Pegasus is hacking the phones of around 40 Indian journalists along with the leaders and government officials. The NSO which is associated with the selling of Pegasus has referred to all allegations to be baseless and accused the Indian government to be involved in the hacking conspiracy.
The game of vendetta emerged-
The issue has relished Indian politics and the game of political vendetta started. The opposition started demanding the resignation of Amit Shah and inquiry in the role of Prime Minister too. Moreover, they also defamed the government in its failure to ensure the national security and welfare of the Indian citizens. On this, BJP replied that there is no single evidence to prove the government’s hand in phone detection. The government is not leaving a stone unturned in providing and respecting the right to privacy of citizens. Shah also proclaimed that the report was published by disrupters for the obstructers. Disrupters are the nefarious institutions operating in the Western World and acting as a barricade in India’s way to development. Obstructers are the people of Indian Origin only who are obstructing the progress of India. The government is working continuously to achieve national welfare irrespective of what is happening in the country.
What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is the most powerful spyware, developed by the NSO (Israeli Company). The company is also responsible to license it around the world including the national governments of many countries. It hacks the phones by attacking the operating systems of Android and iOS in the case of Apple phones. After once entering into the phone, it keeps surveillance on the same for 24 hours. It copies messages, records the calls, harvests the photos as well as keeps on filming an individual secretly through the front camera of a phone, etc. The software completely ruins the privacy of a person. It is a type of the Trojan Horse virus that damages cell phones by “flying through the air”. The software has been used by several countries to ensure their national security.
Is this the new way of ensuring National Security? Has the notion of security has changed?
The use of spyware to track the citizens of India is hampering their right to privacy. It is a violation of fundamental rights. Government must set up an inquiry commission to look into the matter and punish the offenders for this breach of the constitution. The members of the commission must not be the judges of the Supreme or High court rather it should be seen by the technical experts and Civil Servants. This has diminished the security state of the country. The Parliament is required to make a strong statute on the privacy laws and offenders must be punished. If the violation of privacy persists longer then the whole idea of a security state would get diminished. Government cannot curtail the privacy of an individual in name of the security of the state. Security is meant for the people to serve their interests. Intruding in a life of an individual in name of securing a nation is not an ethical way to provide security. A government must keep an eagle eye on the functioning of any such software in the country.