Congress Condemns Centre For "Spying" On Rivals

TPCC election committee chairman Damodar Rajanarasimha today slammed the Modi government, alleging that it had been "hacking the phones" of Congress leaders.

Speaking at a demonstration organised at Hyderabad's Indira Park, the leader claimed, "The BJP-led Centre has been slapping cases on anybody who questions its policies. The Centre has been using section 124 of the IPC to do so."

Congress working president M Anjan Kumar Yadav, who had organised the demonstration, also criticised the Modi regime for "spying" on dissenters using the Israel-based NSO group's Pegasus software, and asked that the Centre clear up the matter.

Further, Yadav demand that the Centre order an enquiry into the "violations" of IT and privacy laws by a committee of Supreme Court judges.

Launching an attack on the Telangana government, he alleged that the state was being ruled by "dictators" and claimed that the intelligence wing in the state had hacked the phones of the leaders of the Congress.

MLA Seethakka, who was also at the protest, said that phone hacking was a threat to the security of the country.

"Both the state and the union governments are harassing those leaders who are raising their voices on the issues being faced by the public. The two regimes are attempting to silence dissenters by filing sedition cases against them. The leaders of the BJP are trying their hardest to retain power by snooping on the leaders of our party. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah are threatening the security of the country by sharing sensitive information with foreign countries," she thundered.

The Centre has been facing considerable flak after reports claiming that it had used Pegasus to spy on scores of rival leaders and journalists flooded the media recently.