India bought Israeli Pegasus spyware as part of weapons deal: NYT | News
According to a New York Times report, the Indian government led by Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi acquired spyware from Israel in a 2017 arms purchase deal.
The Indian government denied buying the Israeli-made spyware allegedly used to infect the phones of its opponents, right-wing activists and journalists in India.
The report, released Friday, says Pegasus and a missile system were then the "hearts" of a roughly $2 billion deal involving advanced weapons and intelligence tools.
Last year, an investigation by a global consortium of media companies revealed how Israeli-made malicious spyware was being used by governments around the world to spy on dissidents and journalists through their cellphones.
More than 1,000 phone numbers in India were among nearly 50,000 selected worldwide as potentially of interest to customers of the Israel-based NSO Group, makers of the Pegasus spyware.
According to the New York Times report, the warming of relations after Modi came to power in India led to the deal in question at the time.
The Modi government must today refute revelations by the New York Times that it actually subscribed to the Pegasus spyware sold by the Israeli NSO firm by paying ₹300 crores in taxpayers' money. This prima facie implies that our government has misled the Supreme Court and Parliament. watergate?
— Subramanic Swamy (@Swamy39) January 29, 2022
“The Modi visit was particularly heartfelt, complete with a carefully staged moment from him and the Prime Minister Netanyahu walked barefoot together on a local beach,” the newspaper said.
"Their countries had agreed to sell a package of advanced weapons and intelligence equipment worth around $2 billion -- with Pegasus and a missile system at its heart," it said.
“Months later, Netanyahu paid a rare state visit to India. And in June 2019, India voted for Israel at the United Nations Economic and Social Council to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organization, a first for the nation.”
India's defense ministry told parliament last year that it had "no transaction with NSO Group Technologies."
But India's main opposition party in Congress has accused the government of committing "treason".
“Modi Govt bought Pegasus to spy on our main democratic institutions, politicians and the public. Government officials, opposition leaders, the armed forces and the judiciary have all been targeted by these phone taps. This is treason,” Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Saturday.
Another senior Congress leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, said on Twitter: "Why did Modi Govt act like the enemies of India and use a weapon of war against Indian citizens?"
Al Jazeera tried to reach spokesmen for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but calls went unanswered.
A senior minister tweeted that the NYT "cannot be trusted".
Last October, India's Supreme Court appointed a three-person panel to investigate the alleged use of Israeli spyware for surveillance in India.
Global controversy
NSO Group, which does not disclose its customer list, has been embroiled in controversy in recent years after researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, along with several rights groups and media outlets, found the technology was being used by governments around the world on the smartphones of politicians access opponents, activists and journalists.
The Israeli government has distanced itself from the issue after the United States blacklisted the tech company late last year.
After a month-long investigation, the NYT also said the Federal Bureau of Investigation tested the spyware "for years with plans to use it for home surveillance, until last year the agency finally decided not to use the tools."
Using weaponized spyware against one's own citizens is a criminal activity of authoritarian rulers who are insecure and afraid of their own people. They do not believe in citizens' rights or in institutional accountability.
— Sushant Singh (usSushantSin) January 29, 2022
According to the newspaper's report, many ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists have been potentially targeted by the Pegasus software.
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said one of its senior staff members had been attacked with Pegasus five times in the past year.
The software was used against Lama Fakih, the director of the New York-based group's Beirut office, who also oversees crisis response in countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Israel, Myanmar, the occupied Palestinian territories, Syria and the US, HRW said.
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