Rahul Gandhi on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah had committed “treason” by using the Israeli spyware Pegasus against the Indian State and the country’s people.

The Congress leader demanded an investigation specifically to look into the Prime Minister’s role in the matter, and argued that none apart from the Prime Minister and the home minister can authorise the use of Pegasus in India.

“Pegasus is classified as a weapon. It is called a spying software, but 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 against our institutions,” Rahul said.

“They have used it politically. They have used it in Karnataka. They have used it to scuttle probes, they have used it against the Supreme Court — they have used it against all the institutions of this country.”

Rahul added: “The only word for this is ‘treason’. There is no other word for this and this has to be investigated and the home minister has to resign. An inquiry monitored by the Supreme Court should be held against the Prime Minister.”

The Congress alleges the spyware was used to facilitate the toppling of its coalition government in Karnataka through defections. It has highlighted that a judgment by an apex court bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had saved the defectors from disqualification and that Gogoi was made a Rajya Sabha member soon after retirement.

According to the Pegasus exposé, a woman Supreme Court employee who had complained of sexual harassment by Justice Gogoi was put on surveillance along with her family.

Asked why he was accusing the Prime Minister, Rahul said: “Are you allowed to buy Pegasus? Can I buy Pegasus? Pegasus has to be authorised by the nation-state. The file has to be signed by the Prime Minister, or perhaps the home minister. Pegasus cannot be sold to the military of a country; it is sold to the government of the country. Please read the contract.”

Asked whether he thought the Indian government had bought Pegasus, Rahul appeared to resort to sarcasm.

“The government says it has no knowledge of Pegasus use. If it (spying on Indians) has not been by the Indian government, then some other government is doing it. Maybe the Japanese government, the Israeli government have done it. The Russian government did it, Uganda did it,” he said.

“Because, only a government can buy Pegasus. Even then there should be an inquiry. Why is the Prime Minister not saying that ‘People have been spied upon and I will order an enquiry?’ Why is the government only saying, ‘We have not done it?’”

Rafale jab

Asked about a businessman’s name being on the purported list of potential phone-tapping targets, Rahul said: “I have said very clearly that there has been theft in Rafale. None of you people supported me. This is the truth — for whatever reason, none of you supported me — but the truth has a way of coming out.”

Rahul said: “There is an inquiry in France and you will see, the Prime Minister himself is responsible for corruption in Rafale. You can’t buy everybody. You might think you can buy everybody; the Prime Minister might think he can suppress everybody, (that) he might buy everybody. He can’t.”

The Wire news website, part of the media collaboration that investigated the possible Pegasus targets worldwide, on Thursday reported that the phone numbers of Anil Ambani and another official of his ADA Group were added to the list of potential targets in 2018.

This was the year when the Rafale controversy deepened, with former French President Francois Hollande claiming that France had had no say in the choice of an Anil Ambani company as the offset partner and that it was an Indian government decision.

Rahul said: “Why are you not asking about the CBI director’s phone being tapped? Why are you asking me about Anil Ambani?”

The Wire has said that hours after Alok Verma was removed as CBI director on October 23, 2018, in a hush-hush midnight operation, an unidentified Indian agency known to be a user of the Pegasus spyware had made a note of three telephone numbers registered in his name.

The personal phone numbers of Verma’s wife, daughter and son-in-law too were eventually placed on the list, making it a total of eight numbers from the family, The Wire said.

The Congress has alleged that Verma was removed in such haste because he had started making inquiries about possible corruption in the Rafale deal.

“The real question is, why at the last minute — when the CBI director was about to file an FIR — why was his phone tapped and why was he blackmailed, that’s the real question,” Rahul said.

“Who did it, that’s the question. The issue is not whether Anil Ambani’s phone was tapped. The issue is, the entire Indian State is under attack.”

Not ‘potential’

Asked about his own phone being a potential target, Rahul said: “No, no, it is not a potential target, my phone is tapped. It is clearly tapped, so it is not a potential target.”

He said every single phone he was using was being tapped.

“And let me tell you another thing, I get phone calls from IB (Intelligence Bureau) people who tapped my phone. They call me up and say, ‘Please, beware that I am tapping your phone’,” Rahul said.

“By the way, my security people tell me that they have to debrief what I say, they have to report to their seniors everything I say. So, I am under no (illusion) that I am not tapped.”

Asked if he feared the surveillance, he said: “I don’t get intimidated by these things. I am an open book. Doesn’t make any difference to me.

“It is simple — if you are corrupt, if you are a thief, you will be scared. If you are not corrupt, you won’t fear Modi. You will laugh.”

To another question about his phones being tapped, Rahul said: “Three-four times it has happened that my friends have been informed and told to convey to me that my phone is being tapped.”