Priyanka: Govt Hacking My Children’s Insta Accounts

Following Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra allegations that her children’s Instagram accounts have been hacked, the Centre has reportedly decided to get the charges probed by the advanced anti-cybercrime unit — Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

Just a few days ago, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that the government was tapping his phone and those of his party members. Yadav accused the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of snooping the phone conversations of his party men. Significantly, Akhilesh’s allegations came a day after IT raids on the residences of SP national secretary Rajiv Rai and three other party leaders close to the SP chief.

The CERT-In, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has an advanced lab that can trace hackers and also prevent cyberattacks. Gandhi has not filed any formal complaint yet. However, she fumed at the central government and asked why were they tapping the phone conversations of the opposition leaders instead of serving the public.

Gandhi and other opposition leaders demanded a thorough inquiry into the allegations of phone snooping reportedly using the Pegasus software manufactured by an Israeli firm.

The Congress had been levelling allegations of phone snooping since November 2019. The party said that the phones of three of its leaders including Priyanka were being tapped.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too made such allegations.

The Pegasus spyware case is sub-judice and is being probed by a panel headed by a retired judge. There are allegations that the spyware made by an Israeli firm is being used to snoop on journos, politicians and activists.

Gandhi has been tasked with overhauling the Congress’ fortunes after very poor show in Uttar Pradesh during the last few elections.