Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while addressing a press conference, over what he referred to as a state-sponsored spy attack targeting opposition leaders through their iPhones.
Rahul Gandhi highlighted that several prominent opposition figures, including Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Pawan Kheda, Supriya Srinate, and his office employees, had received warning alerts from Apple. He also mentioned Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in his remarks.
During his press conference, Gandhi stated, “Very few people are fighting against this. You can do as much (phone) tapping as you want, I don’t care. If you want to take my phone, I will give it to you. We are not scared, we’re the ones that fight”
Gandhi further accused the government of engaging in distraction politics, suggesting that such incidents might be intended to divert attention from pressing issues.
The backdrop to Rahul Gandhi’s comments was a series of alerts that several opposition leaders claimed to have received on their Apple iPhones. These alerts warned of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their devices.
Notable figures who shared purported screenshots of these messages on their social media accounts included Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, and Pawan Khera. Sources within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI) confirmed that their general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, also received a similar message.
In response to these allegations, sources from the central government suggested that an “algorithm malfunction” might have triggered the alert emails. They stated that an official statement regarding this matter would be issued shortly.
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