New Delhi: Opposition leaders on Tuesday strongly hit out at the Union government for failing to check, and possibly even conspiring to aid, apparent cases of spyware being used against political leaders, senior journalists and policy influencers. Many top opposition leaders who were warned by Apple that their iPhones may have been targeted by “state-sponsored attackers” have taken the matter up with heads of public institutions.The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, who was one of the politicians who received the warning about a state-sponsored spyware attack, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to register his protest. “This constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India to all its citizens. A surveillance state is the antithesis of democracy,” he said. He added that he had “nothing to hide” to elicit such “snooping”, and alleged that “the accessibility to remotely access the instruments that I use can only mean that the intention is to remotely plant some information on my devices and then to incriminate me on the basis of such planted fabricated material.”“Given the gross misuse of Central agencies by this government headed by you, such a possibility is very real,” he alleged, hinting at previous incidents in which evidence was planted on the electronic devices of some of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case. “Your assumption to the office of the Prime Minister was under oath to uphold the Constitution of India. Instead, there is a gross destruction of democracy and democratic rights of citizens. This is unacceptable,” Yechury said, urging Modi to respond to the matter immediately. Mahua Moitra, the TMC MP who also received a threat notification from Apple, said on X (formerly Twitter) that she will soon be writing to the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to summon Union home ministry officials to enquire about the matter. Writing officially to @loksabhaspeaker @ombirlakota requesting he follow RajDharma to protect Opposition MPs & summon @HMOIndia officials ASAP on our phones/email being hacked. Priveleges Committee needs to take up. @AshwiniVaishnaw this is real breach you need to worry about.— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 31, 2023She said that the Privileges Committee needed to take up the issue, and took a dig at the Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, saying that “this is a real breach you need to worry about” in an apparent comeback against the ethics committee’s probe into her alleged compromise of Lok Sabha log in credentials. She also recalled, indirectly though, the controversy about a woman, close to the power corridors, being snooped on during Modi’s tenure as the Gujarat chief minister. Sahib & Mota Bhai made journey from Gujarat to Delhi & carried their well documented Peeping Tom traits along. Grow up please.— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 31, 2023The Congress came out all guns blazing against the Union government. Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi held a press conference to allege that all the people (leaders and others in his office) who were potential targets of a government snooping, as claimed by Apple, had directly or indirectly questioned the influential role of the Adani Group in the government’s functioning, yet again highlighting concerns about cronyism in the Modi government.“Mr Narendra Modi’s soul is Mr Adani and no matter how much we attack Mr Narendra Modi, doesn’t have an effect, because the soul is somewhere else and now, we have understood this… That is why Apple is sending messages, ‘your phone is being targeted by state-sponsored attackers’,” he said. “The country will soon realise that the prime minister is employed by Mr Adani and works for Mr Adani. The examples are clear. Bombay airport, [an] airport that was owned by somebody else, state-sponsored agencies attack the owner, he surrenders the airport to Mr Adani. Mr Adani is over-invoicing coal from Australia. It leaves Australia, arrive in India, the price is doubled. No enquiry, nothing. No ED, no CBI, nothing. Who is paying for it? When we are using electricity, poor people of this country are using electricity, we are paying the Adani tax. When we travel in the railways; we are paying the Adani tax,” he said. “The wealth of the Indian people is being stolen from them. They are being divided, they are being made to hate each other and while they are angry, they are disturbed, they are upset. Mr Adani is basically taking over everything in this country. He owns most of the channels,” Gandhi said, adding that such measures will not pin him down and that he will continue to fight. The party’s top leadership also took to X to slam the Union government. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the snooping on opposition leaders was to “protect” the corporate interests of the Adani Group. He said that after experimenting with the military-grade Pegasus spyware on opposition leaders, a similar spyware was being used now. मोदी सरकार की एक ही रट – “अडानी बचाओ और लोकतंत्र मिटाओ !”B जासूस पार्टी ने पहले ‘पेगासस’ का इस्तेमाल कर विपक्षी नेताओं व संस्थानों पर तांक-झाँक की, अब दूसरे कोई तंत्र से Snooping चालू है !INDIA अर्थात भारत ऐसी धमकियों ने नहीं डरेगा !— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) October 31, 2023Hours after Apple sent spyware notifications to several individuals about possible “state-sponsored attacks” on their phones, it issued a statement that it did not attribute such attacks to any specific government. The Union government has since then attempted to use Apple’s clarification to blunt the opposition’s attacks. The Congress’s chief spokesperson, Jairam Ramesh, described Apple’s clarification as a “long winded non-denial”. Apple’s clarification is a long-winded non-denial… it only confirms what @RahulGandhi said in his press conference today. https://t.co/z4gDkGAjgi— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 31, 2023The IT minister Vaishnaw, saying that the government will investigate to get to the bottom of the matter, also said that Apple’s devices use an encryption system that can’t be hacked easily. However, that betrays a lack of information on his part that as recently as September 2023, Apple informed its users that it had detected a possible risk of Pegasus breach and urged users to update their phones to the latest version. Even during the Pegasus story break, many Apple phones were found to be compromised by possible state-sponsored attacks. As recently as August 2023, Apple alerted its users to enable lockdown mode if a threat is found on iPhones. Much of that statement was also used in Apple’s statement on Tuesday. Others who also allegedly faced a spyware attack took to X to urge the government for a thorough probe. Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi asked if the government should not be responsible for ensuring that citizens’ data is “safe and not compromised”.So Hon. IT Minister has said he would have the matter investigated, he has also stated that Apple has admitted sending these warnings. While attacking the opposition for calling this surveillance he has stayed silent on why only opposition voices got this message. Am sure he will…— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) October 31, 2023So– Apple has confirmed the authenticity of the messages received by opposition members– Apple says it hasn’t specified who the state is in their ‘state sponsored’ warning so it now becomes incumbent on the government to tell the nation which are the state agencies (across…— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) October 31, 2023