TMC MP Mahua Moitra writes to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over iPhone surveillance of MPs

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 1

The Opposition today sought to corner the Centre over the Apple alert issue with TMC MP Mahua Moitra writing to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla regarding the messages received by several MPs, and some other leaders demanding a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee for IT to examine the issue.

Moitra, set to appear before the Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics on Thursday in connection with the cash-for-query charges against her, expressed concern over “illegal surveillance by the government”.

She urged Birla to provide opposition MPs protection to enable them to continue doing their duties.

Moitra said opposition leaders received a message that they were “being targeted by state-sponsored attackers”, who were attempting to remotely compromise the devices and access their data, communication and “even the camera and microphone”. “This threat is doubly shocking in light of the Pegasus software (sold only to governments) that was used to compromise devices of various members of the Opposition, dissenting journalists and members of civil society during 2019-2021,” Moitra wrote.

“You, sir, are the proverbial keeper of the faith, the guardian of the Lok Sabha and the ultimate parent to each of its members. It is in this capacity that I ask you to immediately provide us the protection required for us to continue doing our duties as a vibrant Opposition which is to question and hold to account the ruling dispensation,” Moitra wrote.

Moitra said international organisations such as “Access Now” and “Citizen Lab” confirmed in September the validity of Apple’s threat notifications and lent it “enormous credibility”.

The TMC MP also cited a Financial Times investigative report, “The Predator Files”, which claimed that the Indian Government was potentially escalating its budget for spyware contracts to USD 120 million involving companies like Intellexa Alliance. Moitra has also written to ethics committee chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar saying she would appear before the committee on Thursday as asked by it. She, however, demanded that she must be allowed to exercise her right to cross-examine original complainant Jai Anant Dehadrai and Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani (witness).

The Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics did not hold any sitting in the past two years. It, however, moved with alacrity after BJP member Nishikant Dubey submitted the complaint against Moitra to Speaker Om Birla on October 15 and Birla forwarded the complaint to the committee.

The ethics committee has taken assistance from the Union ministries of Home and Information Technology to probe the matter and is believed to have received details from them to its queries. It is learnt that Mahua’s log in ID was accessed from Dubai 47 times.

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