New Delhi: Thirteen Opposition parties on Monday signed a joint memorandum to be submitted to President Ram Nath Kovind on the “WhatsApp snoopgate” controversy.
Although the leaders have already sought time from the President to submit the memorandum, they are yet to get an appointment, sources told this newspaper.
The memorandum against snooping was signed at a meeting of Opposition parties held in the capital on Monday, where they also decided to jointly protest issues such as the economic slowdown, RCEP, farm distress and unemployment during the upcoming Parliament session.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said that the Opposition parties will meet again soon to discuss the issue of snooping and decide on the future course of action against the same.
Allegations of snooping started doing the rounds of political corridors after Facebook-owned WhatsApp accused the Israel-based NSO Group of using spyware called “Pegasus” to target over 1,400 WhatsApp users, a few of them based in India.
As per the instant messaging app, the spyware targeted victims by giving missed calls on their mobile phones.
The Congress revved up the debate by claiming that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s phone, too, was hacked.
Among those who attended the meeting included Azad; Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Randeep Surjewala and Rajiv Shukla; RLSP
chief and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha; CPI general secretary D.Raja; CPI(M)’s T.K. Rangarajan; RJD’s Manoj Jha; Trinamul’s Nadeem ul Haque; DMK’s T.R. Baalu; and RLD’s Ajit Singh and Sharad Yadav.
Among the Opposition parties conspicuous by their absence at the meeting were the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The discussions focused on the joint Opposition’s strategy to corner the government on poor economic indicators and India’s decision.
