Modi should call all-party meet on Pegasus row, says Mamata after meeting PM

The government led by Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre should consult all political parties on alleged use of Pegasus spyware for snooping on the phones of the opposition politicians and others, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

She also reiterated the demand of her Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties for a probe monitored by the Supreme Court into the alleged use of Pegasus spyware developed by the NSO Group of Israel for snooping on phones of the opposition politicians, journalists, activists and others in India.

“The Prime Minister should convene a meeting of all political parties on the issue of (using) Pegasus (for hacking phones and snooping),” Banerjee told journalists after her meeting with Modi. “We should have a probe (into the recent revelations) monitored by the Supreme Court.”

Read: All like-minded parties should come together against BJP, says Mamata

Banerjee’s nephew and the Trinamool Congress’s national general secretary Abhishek Bandopadhyay was among the potential targets of snooping, according to The Wire news portal, which participated in a global investigation by media organisations on hacking and snooping of phones using Pegasus, the spyware, which the NSO Group claimed was only sold to “vetted governments” around the world.

Even as the Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties continued to demand probe into the alleged misuse of the spyware by the government for surveillance on politicians, journalists, activists and others, Banerjee on Monday announced the decision of the government of West Bengal to constitute a commission to conduct an inquiry. The commission would be led by former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Madan B Lokur and former Kolkata High Court judge Justice (retd) Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya.

Banerjee on Tuesday said that she urged the Prime Minister for sending more medicines and anti-Covid-19 vaccines to West Bengal to help her government effectively deal with the pandemic. “The mood was good. And, he (Modi) was quite okay, I think so, healthwise and mindwise, okay,” she said about her meeting with the Prime Minister.

The meeting between Modi and Banerjee took place two months after the last encounter between the two at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station triggered a political slugfest between the Centre and the government of West Bengal over the then Chief Secretary of the State, Alapan Bandopadhyay.

The two leaders had personally attacked each other while campaigning for their respective parties during the elections in West Bengal.

Banerjee on Tuesday criticised the Modi Government at the Centre for the recent Income Tax raid on two media organisations as well as the BJP government in Tripura for detaining a team of political strategist Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, which worked for the Trinamool Congress during the assembly polls in West Bengal and went to the northeastern state to test the water. Tripura will go to polls in 2023 and the Trinamool Congress is keen to expand its footprint in the state.