Delhi's Deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Thursday raked up the Pegasus spyware issue while lashing out at the BJP over the latter's allegation of snooping. He said that he must have become equal to PM Narendra Modi as "people of big stature" are now scared of him.
"The BJP has brought a new allegation against me that I have been spying on them since 2015. If such big people, whose existence is dependent on CBI, ED, and Pegasus to conspire against Opposition leaders, are afraid of me then it seems that I have become equal to Modi," he tweeted in Hindi.
While talking to the media earlier, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari had said that Manish Sisodia was caught spying on political leaders on the pretext of operating a Feedback Unit in 2015. "Instead of doing developing Delhi, illegal spying was being done using taxpayers' money. Investigating agencies have caught it and now the process of registering a case against Deputy CM Manish Sisodia is starting," Tiwari had said.
The feedback unit was a system to gather relevant information and actionable feedback concerning the working of the various departments and autonomous bodies, institutions and entities under the jurisdiction of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD). The unit began operations in 2016 with a provision of Rs 1 crore for "secret service expenditure".
However, the CBI has alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led government "in addition to collecting the mandated information, gathered political data". It also said that the unit did not have the Lieutenant Governor's sanction. The CBI further alleged that 60% of the information that the FBU gathered was about vigilance and corruption while the rest was political intelligence.
Tiwari said that the Lieutenant Governor also referred this case to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. It is a matter of great concern that the government of Delhi is spying on political leaders and secretly listening to their phone calls. Manoj Tiwari said that many things are very confidential, such as matters of defence, talks of security and scientific research. "Is the Delhi government listening to all these things secretly? Is it sharing them with someone," he asked.
The BJP MP said that this is a direct threat to national security and the involvement of the Aam Aadmi Party government of Delhi is dangerous. "We demand that the investigating agencies should take strict action in this case. National security should not be played with. We are trying to raise this issue in the House as well. But it is equally important to come in the public domain. I believe that strict action should be taken against such people," he said.