Cover Feature

 
Pegasus Hacking Scandal: Modi Government Must Face Independent Investigation

The Modi Government’s use of Israeli “Pegasus” spyware technology to secretly and illegally hack into and take control of the phones of thousands of Opposition leaders, journalists, Supreme Court judges, activists and other Indian citizens is by far the biggest criminal act by a Government in 75 years of independent India.

Agreeing to examine the pleas filed by Editors Guild of India and Major-General S.G. Vombatkere (Retd), challenging the constitutionality of section 124A (sedition) in the IPC, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana posed strongly worded questions in open court to the Central Government.

An order by the Uttarakhand High Court imposing a Rs 10000 fine each on five environmental activists for a PIL filed by them, will serve to intimidate and deter any citizen from raising environmental and social concerns that conflict with the interests of corporate projects.

In 2019-20, India was haunted by the spectre of the NRC – a national register of citizens that Prime Minister Modi and his Home Minister Shah had promised. Modi and Shah had claimed that this exercise of forcing every Indian to “prove” citizenship to the government, through legacy documents.  

The New York Times notes that as of May 24, India’s official second wave Covid death toll was 307, 231. But NYT, with the help of a range of experts, said that even a conservative estimate amounts to 6 lakh deaths. A more likely scenario, according to the NYT calculation, would be 16 lakh deaths. A worse but entirely possible scenario according to NYT is 42 lakh deaths.

A number of artists, writers, and activists initiated a campaign to ‘Count Every Death’, commemorate Covid victims and amplify the voices of family members who lost loved ones.