“Snooping, hacker of Indian Democracy”

|Ruchika Rawan - THE DEN|

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.  Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.                                                                                                                                                       

-Martin Niemöller

The trepidation of us fearing our conversations might be  being listened to is now consequential as what we can do if a  spyware like ‘Pegasus’ is implanted in our cell phones  seemingly without leaving a trace, and it continuously  streams out our private lives ? Nothing actually ! Apparently  we should get back to landlines. The Pegasus intrusions  reveal that the world's largest democracy has been fully  hacked. Fundamental rights are now being violated in India  in broad daylight and non-cooperation of Indian government  into independent probe have caused suspicion of what if the  taxpayer money is being used to intrude into private lives  rather than the development of this country considering  Pegasus spyware costs over 48 lakhs per device. Whoever  the crook is, it needs to be brought to book and it could be  possible only if we stop turning a blind eye to what is  happening. “Because snooping can’t be the new normal, it's  the hacker of Indian democracy”.