Earlier, it was unveiling of Tri Colour News Network Limited and then shutting it down in less than two weeks after Congress lost the 2019 general elections.
The owner of London's TNN (standing for Tri Colour News Network Ltd) World, a Romanian national called Dina Biciin, had switched the business model, from a global news platform earlier to a sensual massage service later.
This channel was used as a platform by Congress leader Kapil Sibal to target Narendra Modi government by airing spate of undercover stories slamming India's demonetisation and EVMs.
This time, yet another controversy has erupted when the Congress prince had been on a foreign tour for meditation as per the claims of the Congress party.
The fresh controversy does not revolve around erotic parlour, but social media behemoth Whatsapp, which has sued an Israeli Company - NSO - in a US Court for snooping on Indian ultra-left and human rights activists, besides journalists, lawyers and Dalits.
Though Whatsapp did not mention names of the victims, whose phones were under surveillance by operators using Israeli spyware Pegasus in writing, The Indian Express published their names by means of a source-based story.
The paper claimed that Whatsapp had contacted each one of the victims after knowing about the surveillance carried out by Pegasus, but can it stand legal scrutiny?
According to NSO's brochure, one of the key features of Pegasus is that it does not leave any trace on the device and consumes minimal battery, memory and data, so as to not arouse suspicion in more alert users.
Another key feature of the spyware is installation of a self-destruct mechanism to avoid exposure.
So, if Pegasus does not leave any trace on the device and boasts of a self-destruct mechanism, how is it possible for Lutyens media to publish names of Indian lawyers, journalists and other activists involved in Bhima Koregaon case.
Why is that the Whatsapp not giving any written statements to the press or making submissions corroborating names of the victims in the US court?
This is so, because, the firm knows and in fact told the court that it is very difficult to identify the victims due to the inherent features of Pegasus.
The Whatsapp, in its complaint, also claimed that the surveillance was carried out 'between April 29, 2019 and May 19, 2019' on users in 20 countries across four continents. Immediately, the Congress linked the the snooping period to Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress, in its frontal attack over the issue, asked if Modi dispensation spied on citizens and political leaders ahead of the 2019 parliamentary election.
If the Modi administration wanted to snoop on political leaders, in the limited and modest wisdom of people, it could have started right before the first phase of elections, not fourth phase. By then, political pundits had predicted a huge win for BJP.
The Lutyens media also presumed that Modi government would have used the spyware because surveillance technology vendors such as NSO claim that they sell their products only to government.
The fact of the matter, however, is that many of these vendors insist on a company as a counter party in their contracts. A Ghanaian company, for instance, had hired Pegasus at over $8 million a year to track just 25 mobile phones.
The government flatly denied purchasing the spyware in a reply to an RTI filed on October 23 by activist Saurav Das in which he asked whether the Indian government purchased or gave purchase order for the Pegasus software from the NSO Group.
In response, the Ministry of Home Affairs on October 31 said, "Please refer to your online RTI application dated 23.10.2019 received by the undersigned CPIO on 24.10.2019. It is informed that no such information is available with the undersigned CPIO."
"An appeal, if any, against this reply can be made within 30 days," the MHA reply added.
The goverment also has asked the messaging platform for an explanation after raising concerns over breach of the privacy of citizens.
In this context, there should be an investigation into the matter.
Now, let us assume that the government was snooping on activists involved in caste violence at Bhima Koregaon, a small village near Pune.
Is it wrong to spy on such activists, who are members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and plotted to assassinate Prime Minister Modi to destabilise democracy and wage war against Indian citizens?
Does the Lutyens media and libtards, by rallying to support these criminal activists, want the Indian Prime Minister to get assassinated?
ATLEAST, senior journalists and politicians should not be surprised over war of words between Congress and BJP over the snooping row.
Such controversies have been raked up on several occasions in the past. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was one of India's first politicians to indulge in snooping.
She asked the IB to keep a tab on the then Home Minister Giani Zail Singh.
According to a book - In Open Secrets, India's Intelligence Unveiled - written by former joint Director of Intelligence Bureau and late Maloy Krishna Dhar, Zail Singh's conversations were tapped at the behest of Indira.
His talk with Khalistan militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was recorded and handed over to her.
Not only that, Indira also directed the IB to track her daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi, wife of Sanjay Gandhi.
The sleuths also spied on all her friends and tapped their conversations. They also snooped on Maneka's mother and the editorial board of a magazine run by her.
Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's son, too ordered the IB to snoop on Zail Singh, who was then the President by bugging the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. However, he had a hunch of it and met his visitors only in the garden.
Rajiv himself was affected by the bug. One of his cabinet secretaries had recorded a conversation, which had Rajiv instructing him to deliver cash in a suitcase to his brother-in-law in Italy.
Former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee too had complained about his office being allegedly bugged on the alleged orders of P Chidambaram in his capacity as the Home Minister.
However, the case was closed after the IB told the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Pranab's office was not bugged. Insiders, however, said that the snooping was done by a private agency, not IB.
So, Congress targeting BJP for snooping activists, is a perfect case of the pot calling the kettle black.
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