Pegasus issue: Will Rahul Gandhi, Congress apologise now? asks BJP

The PM was accused of “crushing democracy” and parliamentary proceedings were disrupted, Prasad said, accusing the opposition parties of taking the cover of PILs to move court after running “motivated” campaigns.

Former law minister and BJP leader. (File)

With the Supreme Court-appointed panel probing the Pegasus issue finding no conclusive proof of the Israeli spyware in the phones it examined, the ruling BJP on Thursday sought an apology from opposition leaders for what it said was a “motivated campaign” aimed at weakening Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing the media at the BJP headquarters, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the opposition parties, “so called intellectuals”, some NGOs and a section of media of running a sustained campaign against the government over the Pegasus issue.

The PM was accused of “crushing democracy” and parliamentary proceedings were disrupted, Prasad said, accusing the opposition parties of taking the cover of PILs to move court after running “motivated” campaigns.

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And Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, he added, had levelled charges “such as treason” against PM Modi for alleged surveillance of his colleagues and opposition leaders using Pegasus.

“Will Rahul Gandhi and the Congress apologise?” said Prasad, who also slammed the Congress campaign against the government over the Rafale issue and the Central Vista project, in which the Supreme Court found no irregularities.

Prasad accused the Congress of bearing “so much animus” against PM Modi and his government “that it resorts to falsehood to expand the party”. “But it (Congress) ends up shrinking further after its lies are exposed,” he said.

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