Indian govt to protest against NSA snooping on BJP

New Delhi, July 2: The

storm may have died down, but the Indian government has risen up to it now. With reports suggesting the NSA snooping on BJP, India is all set to launch a protest with the top rungs of the US administration.

Edward Snowden's secret revelations on NSA snooping on various countries charted India among the top targets. According to highly-placed secret sources, the government is likely to either summon the US envoy here or register a protest in Washington through ambassador S Jaishankar.

The documents further revealed BJP's name, apart from Lebanon's Amal, with links with Hezbollah, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistan Peoples Party to be snooped upon with the instruction of the US government.

The government had initially kept itself from reacting, merely noting that any transgression - if the reports were correct - of individual privacy would be totally unacceptable. However, they realised the importance of the issue, given the political ramifications attached to it and decided to react.

The government could have taken the issue to the secretary of state John Kerry, who will be visiting India soon. However, it decided otherwise as the matter needed immediate attention.

This, in turn, has put Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an awkward position, especially when his relationship with the US was healing slowly.

BJP general secretary Rajiv Rudy said,"the allegation must be investigated" and called on the external affairs ministry to respond appropriately.

Prakash Javadekar, the information and broadcasting minister, said, "... we will take up the issue after we cross check facts."

Earlier Salman Khurshid had defended the US saying,"it was not actually snooping. Some of the information they (the US) got out of their scrutiny, they were able to use it to prevent serious terrorist attacks in several countries".

Syed Akbaruddin, the foreign ministry spokesman commented on the news saying,"Our view is pretty clear that it is extremely disconcerting that privacy laws in India are undermined whether it is individuals or organizations."

OneIndia News