The Pegasus controversy doesn’t seem to end anytime soon as the opposition continues to target the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. On Wednesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she cannot talk to Sharad Pawar or any other opposition leaders as her phone is being tapped.
Addressing a rally, she accused the central government of trying to make the country a ‘surveillance nation’.
Banerjee requested the Supreme Court to take cognizance of the alleged espionage scandal targeting politicians, activists, journalists etc using Pegasus spyware. She told the opposition parties that everyone will have to come together to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“I know that my phone is being tapped. All opposition leaders know that their phones are being tapped. I cannot talk to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar or other opposition leaders or chief ministers because the Center is spying on us. But by spying on us, they will not be able to survive in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” she said.
Accusing the Modi government of failing to handle the second wave of Covid, Mamta said that the BJP will have to be defeated at any cost. She thanked the leaders of Congress, NCP, Samajwadi Party (SP), Shiv Sena and many other parties for digitally joining her rally from Delhi.
Significantly, on this day in 1993 in Kolkata, 13 people were killed in police firing on Youth Congress workers who had gathered in a rally against the then Left Front government. Banerjee was in Congress at that time. In the memory of those 13 workers, Trinamool Congress celebrates Shaheed Diwas every year on this day.
Source: dnaindia.com