"Undaunted will of supremacy can be venomous.” 

 

Well, it seems the expression is befitting for the situation that the Indian government has been accused of– the usage of Pegasus Spyware. Recent reports from the UN and claims from the Congress Party explicitly state that “Prime Minister Modi has been reported to be compromising the national security of several citizens as over a dozen phone numbers have been potential targets for the Israeli-made spyware.” 

 

 Over the past few days with numerous allegations, the issue has arisen and seemed to gain importance as India's pivotal ally, the USA, has raised its concerns about the violation of civil rights; this has led to interesting insights about political ethics and its implications today. The Pegasus Spyware was developed by the Israeli cyber-arms and as of 2016, Pegasus was capable of reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking, accessing the target device's microphone and camera, and harvesting information from apps. Ideally, the government has control to watch over its citizens’ activities for security reasons. However, the recent party in power has been accused of using spyware to monitor the actions of opposition parties. Furthermore, in West Bengal, Mamta Banerjee's party presumes that the party members are suspects. Similarly, evidence has been found against the government with allegations that India's military ties with Israel makes it relatively easy to procure and vet the spyware. This showcases a clear illusion of misusing basic rights through a cyber weapon that is only used to track criminal and terrorist-related activities. The Indian government has however seemed to misinterpret the use from a more personal and politically inclined standpoint. 

 

Surprisingly, civilians state that the only missing statement from the government is that “India does not use pegasus spyware.” BJP and all responsible members have said to have adopted a pseudo-capitalist path of suffocation with the banal principles of communism furrowed to their own selfish gains, lacking  “Diplomacy,” which is not only the right to speech but also the right to know.  Their prognosis attempts to create civilian necrosis. Moreover, the manipulation and disgrace constitute the basic contents of its core values with a sole agenda to spread its tentacles by prowess, intimidation, or dilapidation.

 

 “You walk with embers, you burn, better skip” - to conclude, it is quite prominent that the Indian government has paved a path under the relentless idea of setting newer abbreviations to civil rights and building ordinary standards to human rights and privacy violation. However, the nation has shown their stance on the situation and have highly objected to this action by the Indian government as it opposes a risk to journalists, citizens and people of political power and linkages. They say that we should be influenced and not imitative. They say to kiss the right to our privacy so that our plan of action to garner mobility to us as an individual, not in the direction that the government can control our society and nation. Most state that the only one “ism” that India is lacking now is communism and actions like these should be highly condemned for the security of civilians.  

​

Written By: Shreeya Suri

Edited By: Aarushi Bansal

Designed By: Sidhvik Puri

​