Quite disappointing
‘Who is stopping them?’: Opposition leaders should file FIR on ‘threat notifications’, says Ravi Shankar Prasad
Former Union IT minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday that it was for Apple to issue a clarification on the alerts it has sent to several people, including Opposition leaders, warning of a “potential state-sponsored spyware attack” on their iPhones. Prasad also rejected the allegations against the government as “baseless and false”.
From Congress’s Shashi Tharoor and AAP’s Raghav Chadha to TMC’s Mahua Moitra and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, Opposition leaders across the political spectrum claimed that they had received such a “threat notification” from Apple on their iPhones.
“It is for Apple to clarify,” Prasad said. Instead of levelling allegations against the government, these leaders should take up the matter with Apple and lodge an FIR, he added. “Who is stopping them?” Prasad asked.
He also recalled the controversy over the alleged use of Pegasus malware to hack into the phones of certain people, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “When the Supreme Court asked him to give his phone for the investigation before the committee, he did not give,” Prasad said.
Prasad added that as per his experience, no telephone company does something like that and goes to CERT-In, a quick response team, first to look into the matter.
On senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also making the same allegation, Prasad said that Tharoor himself was the chairperson of the IT and telecom standing committee. “Why doesn’t he ask the company to give an explanation?… If not satisfied, lodge FIR. But before saying all, that making allegations on the government, are baseless and false,” Prasad said.
Express News Service – 2023-10-31 14:21