New Delhi: Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) unit chief Ripun Bora on Wednesday demanded a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Court judge into the alleged state-sponsored phone hacking attempt of some opposition leaders. Bora also demanded the resignation of Information Technology (IT) Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in light of the hacking allegations.
Addressing a press conference in Assam’s Guwahati, the former Rajya Sabha member strongly condemned the alleged state-sponsored phone hacking attempt of some opposition leaders.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government is trying hard to keep in surveillance the activities of the opposition leaders before the 2024 general election. Assam TMC demands the resignation of IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and a judicial probe by a Supreme Court Judge. We appeal to all the people to be alert against such phone hacking attempts and come forward to save the Constitution and democracy,” Bora said.
The TMC national spokesperson also said that this is not only a threat to the democracy of the country but also an "undeclared emergency" situation in India.
“Many opposition leaders, including Indian National Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, KC Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate, TS Singh Deo, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Revanth Reddy, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, CPI (M’s) Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT’s) Priyanka Chaturvedi, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Asaduddin Owaisi among others, got warning from Apple about the attempt to hack their mobile phones,” Bora said.
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“Even some prominent journalists also got similar warning messages. This is not the first time. The BJP had used the Pegasus for tapping phones of opposition leaders before the 2019 Lok Sabha election,” Bora added.