Since 2019, Pegasus spyware has been the subject of many questions in Parliament; but the government is yet to state clearly if it has or hasn't used the software to spy on Indian citizens. The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw's statement on Monday about new reports of Indians being impacted by the NSO-made Pegasus spyware neither denied nor confirmed the use or procurement of the spyware by the government, instead he only rubbished the news reports as 'sensational'. The Minister also quoted several provisions under Indian law pertaining to government surveillance and referred to the Israeli NSO Group's statement in response to the exposé. Why this matters? The government's statements on Pegasus have beat around the bush with answers frequently quoting various sections of the Indian law and reiterating that the government is committed to 'due process'. This is especially important in light of recent reports on a leaked database of phone numbers that had been selected as targets for surveillance. Of the 300 phone numbers verified to belong to Indians, one used to belong to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw himself along with the phone numbers of Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishore, several journalists, activists, and lawyers. On October 30, 2019, The Indian Express had first reported that the Pegasus spyware, which can remotely access any sensitive information on a device and activate the camera too, had impacted 121 Indians. What follows is a compilation of…
