Syed Akbaruddin, former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, has said that a New York Times Report connecting India’s vote in UN on Israel with the purported purchase of the Pegasus software from Israeli company NSO is utter rubbish. “The insinuation about India’s UN vote is utter rubbish…”, he tweeted reacting to a tweet posting the NYT article.
The insinuation about India’s UN vote is utter rubbish… https://t.co/lTdRWJ5e3c
— Syed Akbaruddin (@AkbaruddinIndia) January 29, 2022
In the report on how Israel was using the Pegasus software for diplomatic leverage, NYT had insinuated that India’s pro-Israel vote in the UN was linked to the purchase of the software. However, Syed Akbaruddin, who was the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations during that period, has completely denied the allegation.
The former diplomate reiterated it today, saying that the insinuations about India’s UN vote are erroneous. During an interview with NDTV, Akbaruddin said NYT never approached him about India’s vote favouring Israel in the UN in 2019. In its report, New York Times had said, “In June 2019, India voted in support of Israel at the UN’s Economic and Social Council to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organisation, a first for the nation.” NYT has speculated here that India voted in favour of Israel in exchange for alleged access to Pegasus spyware.
Insinuation about India’s UN vote is erroneous… pic.twitter.com/QJ1zIA9hjm
— Syed Akbaruddin (@AkbaruddinIndia) January 30, 2022
‘I am amused’ said Akbaruddin
Akbaruddin, who had served as Permanent Representative to the UN in New York between January 2016 to April 2020, said he was amused when he learned about the speculations NYT had made about India’s vote against an NGO at the UN. He said, “It was a mundane case of a Palestinian NGO that came in the NGO committee, which is a tiny committee of the UN ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council).” He added that initially, no country had a problem with the NGO, so it was pushed for approval to ECOSOC.
However, later, several countries came up with evidence of the NGO’s alleged connection with terrorist organisations that were not revealed in the initial submission. He said, “We ourselves have many concerns about NGOs being infiltrated by terrorists. Therefore when this case came up, and my colleague who handles this committee came to me and asked ‘ambassador, what do we do?’ and without blinking an eye, I said, ‘well, if there is a terrorist concern and all they are asking is to delay this to the next meeting so why should we have a problem at all.’ I never consulted anybody. I never asked anybody. I gave the direction because it was in consonance with our policy, and we voted on the right side of the history there.”
He further added no one from Delhi ever contacted him on the matter. It was about an NGO and not about Palestine itself. He said, “I am little surprised that New York Times picked up a disparate vote on a small NGO and linked it to a bigger story.”
‘Nobody from NYT approached me’
When he was asked if he knows NYT ever approached anyone from the Indian mission to get information about the vote, Akbaruddin said, “Both Mike and I have moved on, and NYT certainly did not contact me.”
NDTV reporter questioned if the vote was against India’s stand on two-nation theory in the case of Israel and Palestine, to which Akbaruddin said, “First of all, this was not about the two-nation theory. It was about an NGO. If we looked at it as an issue of NGO that perhaps had terrorist links and a year before we had abstained on the similar thing.” He further added India was working on a framework under which we said every NGO should be vetted for the UN-designated list.
He said, “If NYT was serious, they certainly would have contacted me. I would have said the same thing I am telling you, and the matter would have ended there. Nobody came to me. If this was such a sensitive issue, then somebody would have sensitised me. Or, later on, would have said you have done the right thing. Nobody questioned me over this, and the matter ended there. I am surprised New York Times has done shoddy work on this.”
Rahul Gandhi used the NYT Pegasus story to target the Modi government
NYT published a report on January 28 regarding their year-long investigation into the controversial Israeli spyware Pegasus. The New York Times article mentions how various countries had purchased the software from its maker NSO, which included India. The report says that Pegasus was part of the $2 billion defence deal India had signed with Israel in 2017 during PM Modi’s Israel visit. Unlike the previous allegations regarding the software, the New York Times article does not make any allegations about its misuse.
After the NYT article came up, the Congress party has started attacking to govt over the issue, led by Rahul Gandhi. The former Congress president has alleged that the Modi govt has used the software to spy on primary democratic organisations, political leaders and members of the public. He alleged that the govt had targeted everyone, including govt functionaries, opposition leaders, armed forces and judiciary, by tapping their phones.
However, unlike what Rahul Gandhi and his party are alleging, the New York Times article does not mention anything about how the Indian govt used the software. It just said that along with dozens of other countries, including the USA, India also had acquired the Pegasus software in 2017.
The Supreme Court has already formed a committee to investigate the allegations regarding the use of Pegasus. The court has also asked the people who had alleged that their phones were hacked by the govt using the tool to submit their phones to the committee for forensic analysis of the devices. Several people have submitted their phones accordingly, and their phones were returned after making a copy of the same for analysis. However, it is not known whether Rahul Gandhi has submitted his phone or not.
