Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday launched an attack on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for his speech in Cambridge University where he discussed at large on the ‘attack on Indian democracy’s basic structure’. Sarma said that Rahul’s speech at the University is ‘nothing but a brazen attempt to denigrate the country on foreign soil’.
“Rahul says Indian democracy is under threat because he can’t freely express himself. FACT: He travelled 4,000 km in his yatra incident-free under the protection provided by Modi Govt. Do we need to remind him how yatras led by BJP leaders were sabotaged when Cong was in power?” Sarma asked while attacking Gandhi in a series of tweets.
During his speech, Gandhi said that a number of political leaders along with him have Pegasus, an Israel-based spyware, on their mobile phones and that an Intelligence officer informed him about his words being ‘recorded’.
“I myself had Pegasus on my phone. A large number of politicians had Pegasus on their phones. I have been called by intelligence officers who told me, ‘Please be careful about what you are saying on the phone because we are sort of recording the stuff’,” he said.
Rejecting Gandhi’s claims, the Assam CM pointed out the Supreme Court ruling on the matter which said that there was ‘no conclusive proof’ of the spyware being installed in phones. A total of 29 phones were examined, and Sarma argued that Rahul ‘refused to submit his phone’ for the probe.
“Rahul says Pegasus was found on his phone and an ‘officer’ warned him regarding it. FACT: He refused to submit his phone for investigation when Supreme Court asked for it. Following extensive investigation, SC concluded that there was no evidence of Pegasus,” Sarma said. However, the SC also ruled that the ‘Centre has not cooperated’ in the investigation conducted by a technical committee it appointed.
Sarma also responded to other matters raised by Rahul Gandhi during his speech. Gandhi reiterated that India is a union of states and there is a need for ‘negotiation and conversation’. He further discussed about attacks on minorities and press.
“Bharat & her Mahajanapadas as a civilisation entity has been in existence thousands of years before even Europe became a political entity, yet we are modelled after them?” the Assam CM asked.
