Modi government has once again come under the shadow of surveillance on specific persons including opposition leaders. It is done through Pegasus, an app developed by Israel which has been sold to ten countries including India. The company which has developed this app has told that this app is sold to only countries. If the Modi government has done this, it is truly unacceptable and unfair. The earlier Modi government probe this matter, the better it will come out of the shadow of suspicion. Actually, this is not the first incident of keeping surveillance on opposition leaders, not only in India but also in the entire world. After the second world war, espionage had become routine and the incidents provided several novels and films stories of such kind of spying. As the technology developed, espionage became deeper and intense. In India, the Kargil coffin scam was unearthed due to a mobile device, when mobiles were in the primary stage. Now, there has been immense progress in mobile and other technologies. So, Pegasus is not shocking but it is a symbol of technological development of such devices. The cyber crime branch should be ready to cope with such devices is the by product of this probe. Union minister Vaishnav instead of denying probe, should show readiness to establish an enquiry committee so that, the government if not guilty, will come clean of the charge of espionage. Pegasus-based surveillance is unacceptable. If the Indian government has done this, it is a betrayal of the constitutional compact with citizens. If another government has done it, it is a cyber attack on India and its citizens. Either way, there must be a truly independent judicial enquiry to get to the truth and hold those responsible for this violation of fundamental rights accountable. On Sunday evening, an international network of media organisations, assisted by a network of international civil society organisations, broke a story about State surveillance as a part of a series called The Pegasus Project. In India, The Wire reported that the phone numbers of 40 journalists (including three from this newspaper), two ministers (including the new minister for information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw), three Opposition figures (including Rahul Gandhi), political consultant-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, officials (including former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa), a Supreme Court judge, and business figures were on a list of potential targets for surveillance at different points in the last four years. The phone devices of some individuals, subjected to forensic analysis, indicated the presence of an infection or an attempted hack. If the allegations of widespread surveillance are true, they represent an unacceptable and illegal invasion of the right to privacy, right to liberty, and the right to dignity of all those targeted; the series also throw up deeply disturbing questions about the source of the hack and represents a subversion of India’s constitutional democracy. Developed by the Israeli firm NSO, Pegasus is an extraordinarily sophisticated technology that can, once it infects a phone, gain access to calls (including on encrypted platforms), contacts, app passwords, browsing history, microphone and camera which can capture off-line conversations, and even plant evidence, as alleged in the Bhima Koregaon case. To be sure, the mere presence of a number does not indicate a hack. The list is only of potential targets. It is not that, this espionage is first and last. There will be more and more espionage devices and the governments would face the charges irrespective of the parties. If government is not guilty, it should not run from the conducting the enquiry. It may throw new light to such kinds of spying for which China is generally known as expert. If Modi government has bought this app from company, then it must answer the nation why it felt need to purchase it. The government should not behave like Big Brother in 1984, a world famous novel by George Orwell.