Pegasus story is concocted, fabricated and evidence less: BJP
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Jul, 2021 11:04 AM
New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Referring to alleged reports of snooping of prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware, senior BJP leader and union minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday said that these kinds of stories are concocted, fabricated and have no evidence.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Lekhi said, These kinds of stories are floated to undermine Indian institutions and stop Data Protection, that is set to become the law of the land. This is to desensitize the public of the credibility of the structures and to malign the image of our country."
Lekhi claimed that this is concocted, fabricated and evidence less.
"Ten countries have been named in the spyware issue, but opposition in other countries haven't reacted the way our opposition has. This is a story that is concocted, fabricated and evidence-less," she said.
Lekhi also claimed that the NSO, manufacturer of Pegasus, has denied that this is a list of their customers.
"NSO has denied that this is not a list of their customers and has no corroborative evidence of any connection between the list in circulation. Amnesty International has denied this list and yet, the Opposition has continued to disrupt the House based on fake news," Lekhi said.
Lekhi further stated that the published story is based on a list on numbers available in any directory or yellow page.
"Second, Amnesty International has denied this. The company whose produce is Pegasus, has said that these claims are uncorroborated and do not tally with their customer base," she said.
Hitting out at the opposition parties, he said, "Whenever something right and good is supposed to happen in the country, opposition indulged in this kind."
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday condemned the Congress government in Punjab for allegedly discriminating against teachers and forcing them to come to the streets, and asked state Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla not to behave in an 'arrogant' and 'dictatorial' manner and resolve the grievances of government school teachers immediately.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
"There have been several unfounded media reports that have peddled misinformation among the masses regarding this exercise of national importance," a ministry statement said, adding that the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far stand at 21,85,46,667.
The Congress said that it was "appropriate for our initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers had ruptured the delicate peace in the region".
