Mamata Banerjee who is always in a lookout for opportunities to malign PM Modi and his government on Monday told media that the Narendra Modi government was misusing the various central agencies and illegally tapping her phones and getting information about her and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “take care” of the issue.
“I have full evidence to prove that the centre is using the agencies to tap my phone,” which was unethical and undemocratic she said.
“It is a fact that Israel NSO has supplied this machine to the government. My phone was tapped and I know about it as I have the evidence with me,” she told reporters here.
Mamata Banerjee said that the central government was spying on politicians, media persons, lawyers, social activists and other important personalities.
“Government is using this Israel NSO to watch the activities of politicians, media persons, lawyers and judges, the IAS, IPS officers, social activists, and other important personalities. This is wrong you cannot capture the privacy. Whatsapp was safe but even now it listens to your talk and your messages are no longer safe. So no landline, mobile phones, and Whatsapp messages are safe. There is spying going on.”
“When government works it has to give instructions to its officials and sometimes this work is done after office hours but now when our messages are recorded then how our government will be able to give instructions to officials. I request the Prime Minister to take care of this issue,” she said.
Even though Whatsapp had confirmed that an Israeli spyware group called ‘Pegasus’ had hacked into phones, she alleged that along with the Centre more than one state government was also aware of the security breach. “The government has done that and one or two state governments are involved in this. I cannot give the names right now but I know that state governments have also done this,” the West Bengal chief minister said.
Earlier in February also she had accused the Central Government of tapping her telephones in order to get information about her and then too, she had confidently said that she has proof, but surprisingly, she did not come up with any such evidence. One is left to wonder here whether Mamata Banerjee makes such half-baked claims just for mere attention or out of sheer animosity towards Modi government since she never has any proof to substantiate her flimsy claims.
Similar theatrics has happened several times in the past also. Recently, she had created a farce after the state transport department restricted movement on Tala Bridge owing to its distressed condition. For this too, she blamed the Centre for not giving timely permission to carry out restoration work on the structure.
From accusing the BJP-led central government of using brute force to scuttle the voices of dissent in the Kashmir Valley to attributing the terrorist attacks on non-locals in Kashmir to blaming the centre for instigating violence in the border areas and having a non-cooperative attitude or influencing the voters, asking them to vote in favour of the saffron party, or alleging that attempts were being made by Modi government to defame and tarnish the image of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has mastered the art of attributing anything and everything happening under the deep blue sea to Modi and his government.