With all the vernacular and national media highlighting the statement of Trinamul Congress president and Mamata Banerjee that the previous Chandrababu Naidu government had purchased the controversial Pegasus software to spy on the people and his political rivals, the Telugu Desam Party on Friday made a desperate attempt to wriggle out of the embarrassment.
What was more irritating for the TDP was the way chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s media house Sakshi playing up Mamata Banerjee’s statement prominently, creating suspicion among the readers about the TDP and its president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Though Naidu’s son and former IT minister Nara Lokesh gave a clarification that the TDP government had never purchased any spyware, the party leaders were apprehensive that there might be no takers for his clarification, as he has little credibility among the people.
So, on Friday, the party looked for some solid evidence to prove that the TDP government had indeed never purchased the Pegasus software.
The TDP leaders managed to dig out a reply given by former director general of police Gautam Sawang’s office to a query under Right to Information Act in July 2021.
The TDP leaders pointed out that an RTI activist K Nagendra Prasad, a resident of Yemmiganur, Kurnool district, wrote to the DGP officer asking for details of the sanction letter for procuring Pegasus spyware, the office where it was installed and officers in charge of it.
However, the DGP office sent him a single sentence reply on August 12, 2021 to Nagendra Prasad that Andhra Pradesh government had 'never procured such software'.
It is a clear vindication of the Naidu government regarding the allegation of procuring Pegasus software, the TDP leaders said.
After highlighting the same in the media, the TDP leaders have started attacking the YSRCP and Sakshi in the social media for trying to malign the Naidu government by making false allegations on spyware purchase.
While former ministers Ch Ayyanna Patrudu and K S Jawahar made strong comments against the Jagan government for targeting Naidu on Pegasus issue, another TDP leader B Tech Ravi said had Naidu procured Pegasus software, he would have prevented the murder of Jagan’s uncle Vivekananda Reddy.
Lokesh also repeated the statement he had given the previous night saying Naidu would never indulge in such illegal acts. Had the government purchased the Spyware, there would be a record of it, he pointed out.
"If indeed we had Pegasus, would Jagan have gone scot-free, for all his atrocious acts," Lokesh wondered.