PM Modi “hit soul of India’s democracy” by using Pegasus: Rahul Gandhi

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ The Prime Minister “inserted a weapon in our phones”, used it to “hit the soul of India’s democracy” and now the government is trying to silence opposition demands for a discussion in Parliament, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday.

Mr. Gandhi was addressing reporters after a meeting of 14 opposition parties – a meeting to chalk out a strategy to take on the government over the Pegasus phone-hacking scandal, which has triggered protests in, and forced repeated adjournments of, the monsoon session of Parliament.

“The entire opposition is here… our voice is being curtailed in Parliament. We are only asking if the Pegasus software was bought and if it was used against certain persons in India,” Mr Gandhi said.

“I want to ask the people – there is a weapon Narendra Modi has planted in your phones… used against opposition leaders, journalists, activists… should there not be a discussion in Parliament?”

“… if we (the opposition) agree there will be no discussion on Pegasus… the issue will get buried… till the time Pegasus is not discussed in Parliament, we are going nowhere,” he stressed.