Quite disappointing
Oppn being targeted for raising Gautam Adani issue, says Rahul Gandhi as leaders complain of ‘threat’ messages
As several Opposition leaders claimed that they had received “threat notifications” from Apple on their iPhones warning of a “potential state-sponsored spyware attack”, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that they were all being targeted for asking questions to the government over its alleged patronage to the industrial group owned by Gautam Adani.
Gandhi said “all the people in his office”, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo, party leaders Pawan Khera, Supriya Shrinate and several Opposition leaders have received the warning. And all of them, in some way or the other, have been raising the Adani issue, he added.
Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi are among the Opposition leaders who said they had received similar notifications.
“We are not going to get cowed down. We are fighters. We will not step back. Jitni tapping karni hai kar lo… It does not matter to me… If you want my phone… I will give it to you,” Gandhi said, addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi. He alleged that Adani is now the most powerful person in the country, ranking above Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Like the old Indian story in which a king’s life was in a caged parrot… that is exactly what is going on here. Mr Narendra Modi’s soul is Mr Adani. No matter how much we attack Modi it doesn’t have an effect because the soul is somewhere else. And now we have understood this. We have understood that the soul is there in the parrot and now we are attacking the soul. That is why all this is going on,” Gandhi said.
“That is why Apple is sending messages that your phone is being targeted by state-sponsored attackers… I used to think that… there is a ranking… press people say number one, number two. Number one Mr Modi and number two Mr Amit Shah. The ranking is slightly different. Number one is Mr Adani, number two is Mr Modi and number three is Mr Amit Shah. The county will soon realise that the prime minister is employed by Mr Adani and he works for Mr Adani,” he said.
Gandhi also reiterated his charge regarding the Adani Group’s takeover of Mumbai airport and import of coal by the firm allegedly “at prices above their market value”.
Asked whether the Congress plans to take legal recourse, he said, “No. The last Pegasus inquiry where my name was also there… that sort of disappeared. So that tells you the situation in the country. Our job as Opposition is to make people understand what is going on and I am very happy that more and more people are understanding what is going on.”
“This is clearly a sign of panic. This is not just one person. This is the whole Opposition. This is not done by somebody who is not scared, who is honest and who believes in themselves. This is the work of criminals, of thieves. Only thieves and criminals would want to do this,” he said.
Express News Service – 2023-10-31 13:44