“Does the Government have no other work”: BJP rubbishes opposition claim of alleged hacking of phones

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Supreme Court Advocate Nalin Kohli replied to the opposition’s claim of their phones being hacked by the Centre and said “How can we assume that the Government of India has done this?”
Multiple political leaders have alleged that their Apple devices have been the victim of alleged hacking. The leaders shared the screenshot of the warning received on their Apple devices.

Speaking to ANI BJP leader Nalin Kohli said “There are very serious allegations against Mahua Moitra. For that, she will also have to go before the Parliament’s Ethics Committee and have to answer. Was her email address used to harm one business and benefit another? These are all serious allegations. Now she is talking about phone hacking. If someone tries to hack, a notification comes immediately on the phone. How can we assume that the Government of India has done this? On what basis is she saying this?”

“This is an attempt to divert attention. Also, it is possible that she herself tried to hack her phone? This may also be possible,” Nalin Kohli added.

Meanwhile, AAP MP Raghav Chaddha also got the alleged hacking notification on his phone and claimed that this was an attack on the people of India.

“Early this morning I received a concerning notification from Apple, warning me about a potential state-sponsored spyware attack on my phone. These attacks are not on me as an individual, or one opposition party but the common people of India. As it is not about my phone or my data alone. Every Indian needs to be worried. Because today it is me, tomorrow it could be YOU” the AAP MP said.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey while replying to Mahua Moitra’s claim that her phone had been hacked, said that the MP should immediately give her mobile phone to Delhi police for investigation.

“Is there no work left for the Government of India now? This crocodile tear of the MP accused of mortgaging national security for a few rupees really makes me laugh. Delhi Police should immediately take the mobile phone of the Honourable MP and investigate, the MP should immediately file a case for violation of privacy, and he should not run away after making allegations like Rahul Gandhi ji. He also talked about mobile tape but did not give the phone,” Nishikant Dubey said on X.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, who also claimed alleged hacking of her phone alleged that this is a sponsored program of the Central Government.

“The way I received a warning last night, shows that this is a sponsored program of the Central Government and that I need to take precautions. The warning clearly says that these attacks are ‘state-sponsored’. Why are the leaders of the Opposition only getting such messages? This shows that large-scale surveillance is underway. There should be an investigation on this, and the Centre needs to give a clarification on the same,” Priyanka Chaturvedi told ANI.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also shared the screenshot of the alleged hacking, where he said “Received an Apple Threat Notification last night that attackers may be targeting my phone.”

According to the Apple support page on its website, State-sponsored attacks are highly complex, cost millions of dollars to develop and often have a short shelf life. The vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks.

Apple says if it discovers activity consistent with a state-sponsored attack, it will notify the targeted users in two ways. A Threat Notification will be displayed at the top of the page after the user has signed in to appleid.apple.com. Additionally, Apple will send an email and iMessage notification to the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple ID.