N.C. Asthana

The real issue is not whether Pegasus was used or not; the real issue is whether it is feasible for a nation to carry out its intelligence activities strictly ethically and legally?

It has been alleged that as many as 161 people including journalists, activists, students, politicians and even a victim of alleged sexual harassment were targets or potential targets for surveillance by clients of the NSO Group of Israel through their Pegasus spy ware that was used to ‘infect’ their phones. Acting on a bunch of petitions, the Supreme Court has ordered a committee to inquire into the matter first and submit a report.

However, by mid-February, rather intriguingly, only 12 people out of this were learnt to have deposited their phones for forensic examination in spite of the panel having made repeated appeals since January 2. Perhaps, seven of these 12 phones could belong to the accused of the Elgar Parishad case.

In all fairness, in a matter like this involving perhaps one of the most complex cyber technologies in the world, the word of a laboratory in University of Toronto cannot be taken as final by the Supreme Court, which will insist on a forensic examination to its satisfaction. The reluctance to deposit phones is disconcerting as it is like someone alleging a murderous assault on him but refusing a medical examination.

Why a nation needs intelligence?

India faces both external and internal threats from a wide spectrum of interests and entities hostile to it. Few would dispute that a nation needs a highly efficient intelligence machinery to cope with security threats and that it is not enough to have well-equipped armed forces. Still, after almost any terrorist attack, the most oft-repeated allegation in the media and amongst the common people is that of ‘intelligence failure’.

What do we mean by intelligence in such contexts? While there are elaborate definitions of intelligence, people generally take it to mean that the nation or its security agencies