BENGALURU: While the opposition Congress hit out at the Centre for allegedly resorting to illegal surveillance to topple the JDS-Congress coalition government in Karnataka in 2019, JDS leader and then chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said that snooping has been done by all governments, including the Congress.
“It is a very serious issue and they should not have resorted to such means to destabilise the government,” the former CM said, reacting to the Pegasus Project revelation that phone numbers of his personal secretaries and several other leaders from Karnataka were among those listed for snooping. “They may have used it to get details about weaknesses in both the Congress and the JDS. They would not have made such an attempt if we had worked unitedly,” he said.
Terming it as an invasion of privacy, Kumaraswamy claimed that many government agencies tap the phones of politicians and prominent industrialists to gather information. “This is clearly an invasion of an individual’s right to privacy, but it has been done for many years. Everyone knows how people in power misuse it. It has to stop and everyone needs to introspect,” he said.
The former CM, who faced allegations of phone-tapping when he was in power, said that he had never resorted to such practices. He hit out at the BJP for accusing him of tapping phones while adding that they themselves resorted to such means to destabilise the coalition government headed by him. Kumaraswamy said that he is not interested in discussing such issues and leaders from all political parties must now focus on addressing matters faced by people and provide relief.