Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi once again has raked up the Pegasus snooping issue saying that a large number of political leaders, including him, had the spying software on their phones.
He also said that said the institutional framework required for democracy is becoming constrained and the basic structure of Indian democracy is under attack.
The Congress MP, who is currently in the United Kingdom for a week said: “I myself have Pegasus on my phone. have been called by Intelligence officers who said please be careful of what you say on the phone as we are recording the stuff.”
Rahul Gandhi, who is a Visiting Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School (Cambridge JBS), made the remarks during a lecture to students at the university on the subject of ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st Century’
Attacking the Centre over misuse of central agencies, the Congress leader said, “Cases are registered against Opposition. I have got a number of criminal liable cases registered against me for the things which shouldn’t be under criminal cases.”
“As the Opposition, it is very difficult to communicate with people when you have this type of an assault on media and on the democratic architecture,” he asserted.
“Indian democracy is under attack. We are trying to defend an attack on democracy,” he said.
In his lecture, Rahul Gandhi also accused the BJP government of capturing, and controlling the media and judiciary, surveillance, intimidating, attack on minorities, Dalits, and Tribals, and shutting down dissent.
When asked to list a few good policies of the BJP government, the Congress MP said, “If you fundamentally disagree with the foundation of something…I mean I could think of something like giving gas cylinders to women, bank accounts are not a bad thing,” he said.
“But that’s not the point. In my view, Narendra Modi is destroying the architecture of India. I am not bothered about the two-three good things that he is doing if he is blowing our country to smithereens. And I think that’s what he is doing,” he said.
He also pointed out how the Bharat Jodo Yatra changed him, as people who held his hand during his yatra confided in him as a brother and trusted him.
He said, when the yatra entered Jammu and Kashmir he was asked by the security officials to stop walking as hand grenades will be thrown at him.
“I talked to my people and told them that I wanted to continue the walk. We continued walking and suddenly the National Flag was everywhere,” Rahul Gandhi said.
“As I was walking, a guy came up and showed me a few men standing nearby. He told me they are militants. I thought I was in trouble because in that situation militants would kill me. But they did not do anything because this is the power of listening,” Rahul Gandhi said.
During his week-long programme, Rahul Gandhi will also interact with representatives of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter and also address an “Indian Diaspora Conference” planned over the weekend in London.