Opposition leaders target Modi govt, fume over alleged iPhone hacking attempts

New Delhi: Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi’s close aides, K C Venugopal, Sitaram Yechury, Akhilesh Yadav and Mahua Moitra were among a host of prominent Opposition functionaries who received messages from ‘Apple’ on Tuesday warning them of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones.

Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress), Raghav Chadha (AAP), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-UBT), TS Singh Deo, Pawan Khera, A Revanth Reddy, Rizwan Arshad, Supriya Shrinate (all Congress) and KT Rama Rao (BRS), as well as journalists Siddharth Varadarajan, Sriram Karri, Ravi Nair, Revathi and Observer Research Foundation president Samir Saran also received the alerts.

It prompted a vociferous attack on the Narendra Modi government recalling the Pegasus episode and the government ordering a probe to “get to the bottom” of the issue with IT Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw seeking to corner the Opposition saying “compulsive” Modi critics were indulging in “distraction politics”.

While Rahul and other Opposition leaders sought to link the alleged snooping attempt with the Opposition raising questions about Adani Group, Apple said it does not attribute threat notifications “to any specific state-sponsored attackers”, who it described as “very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time”.

It said detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often “imperfect and incomplete” and it is possible that “some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected”.

“We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future,” the statement which was read as an affirmation of the snooping attempt by the Opposition.

A combative Rahul told a press conference, “We are not scared. You can do as much phone tapping as you want, I don't care. If you want to take my phone, I will give it to you.”

Leaders like Yechury and Priyanka wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking action.

In his letter to Modi, Yechury said his work is an open book and there is nothing to hide. The CPI(M) General Secretary said such snooping was intended to “remotely plant” some information on his devices and then to “incriminate” him on the basis of “such planted fabricated material”.

He added, “Given the gross misuse of central agencies by this government headed by you, such a possibility is very real.”

Priyanka said the episode reinforces her concerns as a “vocal critic” of the government that she is “being discouraged from effectively contributing to the pursuit of accountability and transparency” within the government. Mahua said she is writing to Birla seeking a probe by the Privileges Committee.

Earlier, Mahua posted on X that she received a text and email from Apple warning her that the "government is trying to hack into my phone and email. @HMOIndia – get a life. Adani and PMO bullies - your fear makes me pity you.” Priyanka posted, “Wonder who? Shame on you. Cc: @HMOIndia for your kind attention”.

Tharoor wrote that he received the notification, which he verified and its authenticity was confirmed. “Glad to keep underemployed officials busy at the expenses of taxpayers like me! Nothing more important to do?”

Sharing a screenshot of the message he received, Khera said, “Dear Modi Sarkar, why are you doing this?”

Chadha said uses his smartphone to perform his parliamentary duties and also to question the “dictatorial practices” of the Modi government.

“It is also an instrument used by me to communicate with my party colleagues, workers and volunteers for elections. I use it to coordinate my media appearances too. It is also a device I use to discuss legal strategies with lawyers in several of my ongoing litigations,” he said adding, “Not only my smartphone but the democratic interests of our country have come under attack”.