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Apple snooping row: BJP reminds Chidambaram about bugging of Pranab Mukherjee’s office

In a post on X, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said, “You were the Home Minister when former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s office was bugged. Does this ring a bell, Mr Chidambaram?”

Apple snooping row: BJP reminds Chidambaram about bugging of Pranab Mukherjee’s office

[Representational Photo]

Hitting back at senior Congress leader P Chidambaram over the Apple snooping row, the BJP on Wednesday reminded him of his tenure as the Union home minister when the office of the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was bugged.

In a post on X, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said, “You were the Home Minister when former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s office was bugged. Does this ring a bell, Mr Chidambaram?”

His remarks come after Chidambaram slammed the BJP government over the alleged state-sponsored hackers targeting the mobile phones of opposition leaders.

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 “It is undeniable that hundreds of Opposition leaders got an alert from Apple of a state-sponsored attempt to compromise their phones. Why only Opposition leaders? Who will be interested in compromising the phones of Opposition leaders? After the Pegasus mystery, (not resolved until this date), the finger of suspicion points to a government agency. At the moment it is only a suspicion,” the Congress leader said in a series of social media posts.

A major row erupted on Tuesday when several opposition MPs and leaders claimed to have received a notification from Apple stating that there was an attempt to compromise their devices by “state-sponsored attackers”.

Malviya alleged that the matter is linked to American billionaire George Soros. He replied to a thread on the social media platform, X, which allegedly busted the link between Soros and ‘access now’, mentioned as ‘digital security helpline’ by the Apple notification received by the opposition leaders.

“Part-2 of the thread details out the network George Soros funded ‘Access Now’ has built in India. Notification received (from Apple) by the usual suspects in Opposition ranks also refers to Access Now. Only if you believe in fairy tales, would you think it is all a coincidence,” the BJP leader said.

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