New Delhi : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union home minister Amit Shah of using Pegasus spyware against “India, its institutions and its democracy”, and said that the only word for this is “treason”.He added every phone that he uses is tapped and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe and Shah’s resignation.

“Pegasus is classified by the Israeli state as a weapon and that weapon is supposed to be used against terrorists. The prime minister and the home minister have used this weapon against the Indian state and our institutions. They have used it politically...”

“The home minister should resign and a judicial inquiry by the Supreme Court should be conducted against NarendraModi as no one else can authorise the use of Pegasus… only the prime minister and home minister can authorise its use.” He described himself as an “open book” and said he is not intimidated. Gandhi added he and his friends have been informed by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that tapping is being done.

“I get phone calls from IB people who tap my phone. They call me up and say please be aware we are tapping your phone.” He added his security people have to report to their seniors everything he says. “So I am under no pretension that my phone is not tapped,” Gandhi said his phone has been tapped three-four times.

He called the alleged use of the spyware an “attack on the voice of the people”. Gandhi added it is not just a matter of his privacy. “It (his phone) is not a potential target; my phone is tapped. It is clearly tapped. So, it is not a potential target.” He only the corrupt people fear Modi. “But if you are not corrupt, you will not fear Modi… you tend to laugh.”

BharatiyaJanata Party leader Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore dared Gandhi to submit his phone for investigation if he believes it was tapped and insisted that no one’s phone has been tapped illegally.

Rathore said the Congress is determined to stall Parliament for one reason or another after being rejected twice by people in LokSabha polls of 2014 and 2019.

The government has neither confirmed nor denied whether it has purchased the spyware. NSO Group has on multiple occasions said that it offers services only to vetted government clients. The company has disputed the leaked list of numbers as those targeted by its clients.

The list database was first obtained by France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories, which shared the information with the reporting partners. The devices of at least 67 of the numbers were analysed by Amnesty International and of these, 37 had signs of being hacked by Pegasus. Of these 37, 10 were in India.