“Insult to the democratic set-up”: Karnataka leaders respond to possible Pegasus hack

Two of Karnataka’s senior political leaders condemned the possible hacking of phone numbers associated with them and their staff, following a report in The Wire on a leaked database listing potential targets for surveillance by a client of the Israel-based NSO Group. The NSO Group has consistently maintained that it sells its flagship product, Pegasus, a spying software, only to governments. The report revealed that Satish, the personal secretary of HD Kumaraswamy, a leader of the Janata Dal (Secular) and the former chief minister of Karnataka, was possibly a target of illegal surveillance. Kumaraswamy responded by noting that such attempts represented a, “complete violation of the basic fundamental rights of a person.” He said, “These kinds of developments, according to my personal view, do not reflect well on any party, on any leaders. If anything is right—this issue, this news—then the concerned people who encouraged this kind of situation, they have to repay for that, that’s all.”

G Parameshwara, a Congress leader and the former deputy chief minister of Karnataka, whose number was also reported to be a possible target for surveillance, told me, “It is an insult to the democracy and democratic set-up.” He continued, “How can they intercept telephones? Against the law which is in existence. And it is done, to my knowledge, by none other than those in the government itself … the Government of Karnataka may not be able to answer, but the Government of India needs to speak.” At a press conference held on 20 July, Congress leaders demanded the resignation of Amit Shah, the union home minister, and for an inquiry that examined the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the reported surveillance efforts.

Since 18 July 2021, The Pegasus Project—a collaborative investigation comprising 17 media organisations—has published a series of reports on the NSO Group, an Israeli firm that provides governments across the world with surveillance technology. According to these reports, a leaked database, accessed by the Paris-based non-profit media organisation Forbidden Stories and the global rights-group Amnesty International, revealed that Pegasus may have been used to target more than 50,000 numbers globally. Of these, over 300 verified mobile telephone numbers belonged to Indian ministers, opposition politicians, journalists, members of the legal community, businesspersons, government officials, scientists and rights activists, among others. Independent forensic analysis conducted on at least ten phones from India showed signs of either attempted or successful hacking by Pegasus.

On 20 July, The Wire—which has been investigating the leaked database from India—reported that the records it had reviewed indicated that the phone numbers of key members associated with the Congress and the JD(S) may have been selected as possible targets for illegal surveillance, in mid-2019. In July 2019, a coalition government led by the two parties in Karnataka was facing an existential challenge reportedly brought on by the swift resignation of 17 legislators from the ruling alliance. Eventually, the coalition government failed to prove its majority in a long-drawn trust vote. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader BS Yediyurappa was sworn in as chief minister on 26 July 2019. The BJP denied any role in maneuvering the collective resignations.

All 17 legislators, who had been disqualified by the speaker of the Karnataka assembly under the anti-defection law, went on to join the BJP. Twelve were re-elected to the state assembly after by-polls were conducted in December 2019, and assumed ministerial positions.

The numbers that were listed in the record accessed by The Wire included those linked to several prominent politicians in the JD (S)-Congress combine. On the list are the numbers of Parameshwara and Satish. The number of Venkatesh, the personal secretary of Siddaramaiah, who is a former chief minister, Congress leader and was then headed the coalition’s co-ordination committee, was also on the list. The Wire reported that Siddaramaiah has not been using a phone for several years and relies on his aides to make important calls. The number of Manjunath Muddegowda, a policeman who was a part of the security personnel assigned to the former prime minister and JD(S) president, HD Devegowda, was also listed.

“It is not just one individual [who was targeted], and we are not terrorists,” Parameshwara said, “Why did they do it? Just to bring down the government.” Kumaraswamy said that it was clear to him that the, “central government, actually the BJP government, they tried to destabilise the government.” He added, “They worked very hard, using all these methods, that’s why actually, they have succeeded.”

On 15 August 2019, in the midst of the political crisis, AH Vishwanath, the former president of the JD(S)’s Karnataka unit, who had resigned from the legislative assembly, alleged that Kumaraswamy was illegally tapping his phone. He claimed that 300 other phones, belonging to various political leaders had also been tapped. Vishwanath specifically pointed out that illegal tapping was a criminal offence. He joined the BJP later that year and was nominated to the state’s legislative council in July 2020. Several BJP leaders from Karnataka, including R Ashoka, Karnataka’s current revenue minister and DV Sadananda Gowda, the former union minister of chemicals and fertilisers also made the same allegations.

Congress leaders such as Siddaramaiah also called for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the allegations of tapping. Kumaraswamy denied the accusations and said he was ready to face an investigation. In August 2019, the ruling BJP government ordered a CBI investigation into the matter. The agency has not yet filed a charge sheet.

Congress and JD(S) leaders recalled this investigation following The Wire’s report. “The Union government which had put me under surveillance finally accused me of phone tapping and conducted a CBI inquiry,” Kumaraswamy tweeted. The Hindu quoted DK Shivakumar, the president of Congress’ Karnataka unit, as saying, “Mr. Yediyurappa was kind enough to order a CBI probe into the allegations days after coming to power. I request Government of India to order a judicial probe led by a Supreme Court judge with the same earnestness that Mr. Yediyurappa ordered a probe.”

The Wire noted that as efforts to topple the coalition government in Karnataka were underway, “the decisions of the Supreme Court bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi helped the BJP in cornering the ruling alliance further.” In April 2019, two months before Karnataka was gripped by political tumult, an employee of the Supreme Court had publicly accused Gogoi of sexual harassment and persecution. Gogoi cleared himself of all charges in a hastily convened special hearing of the Supreme Court. Three of his colleagues from the Supreme Court declared him innocent during in-house proceedings from which the complainant withdrew mid-way, citing a hostile environment.

In an earlier tranche of its investigations on the leaked database linked to Pegasus, The Wire revealed that soon after the staffer went public with her allegations, “a total of 11 numbers associated with the complainant and her family were selected, making them the largest cluster of associated phone numbers in the India-leg of the Pegasus Project.” Less than six months after Gogoi retired from the Supreme Court, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the union government. “I don’t want to comment on that in detail,” Parameshwara said, about Gogoi’s role in the political tumult in Karnataka in 2019, “But all this is a part of the story, a part of the plan which they wanted to execute, and this is how they operated.”