Speculations were rising as to when the Pegasus spying issue would reach the legal battlefield and interestingly, with more than half of the episodes of exposé still left to come, on Thursday a plea seeking a Supreme Court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was filed in the apex court. On the day itself during Rajya Sabha proceedings the government while rejecting the demand for an independent probe into the explosive issue has for one more time played the record player containing the same lyrics: “an attempt to malign the Indian democracy and its well established institutions”. The one-liner claim has not only failed miserably in terms of minimum credibility, it’s actually supplementing the perception that there are clear attempts for a cover-up of the scandal which is more heavyweight than the world famous Watergate scandal that finally led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974, the only President of the world’s oldest democracy to leave office amid tenure in such manner. The ball remained in the court of the BJP-led Central government and it would have been highly appreciable if a formal enquiry was ordered. Since it hasn’t arrived and the Supreme Court will be taking it up, a new dimension has been added to the issue.
As of July 22 evening, 115 names which is a heterogeneous mix of journalists, political personalities, an ex-Election Commissioner, activists, lawyers and academicians have been revealed and the rest of the full list of 300+ are slated to arrive in the next few days. Marking the launch of a political fight, the BJP on Thursday has used the choicest of adjectives such as “concocted, fabricated, evidence-less, a fake list that reminds yellow journalism” etc. to rubbish the claim, maintaining that the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 that guarantee individual privacy have never been compromised, as alleged. In another attempt to prove the spying allegations wrong, news reports claiming that Amnesty International, an important partner in the project, has made a u-turn has also been cited by the ruling party in a press conference on the day. Within hours however, the human rights organisation while officially stating that the websites carrying such news have completely misquoted, mistranslated and misinterpreted the statement issued originally in Hebrew language by its Israeli unit and it categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, added also that it will issue an English translation of the statement soon. The issue is not going to die soon and the international press will also pursue it till the end with all their resources and penetrating reportage.
It will be interesting to follow how the damage control exercise is rolled out. The Pegasus episode is surely going to be the government’s Achilles heel.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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