Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta on Tuesday demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raise the issue of snooping by the National Security Agency when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama this week.
In a letter to Dr. Singh, Mr. Dasgupta asked the UPA government to come out with a clarification on media reports that the spy agency was mining even personal information unrelated to terrorism.
The CPI leader sought to know whether the reports, including the ones appearing in The Hindu , about NSA directly tapping into Internet servers to get information, were correct.
“If such reports are correct, then why are such activities being carried out? You should raise the matter with President Obama,” he said.
Mr. Dasgupta said he had raised the issue in Parliament during the monsoon session but the government did not take note of it.
“The latest report is outrageous. It is saying that Boundless Informant was used for monitoring telephone calls and the Internet in India. This has nothing to do with terrorism. If the report is true, which only you can clarify, then Indian sovereignty is shamefully undermined, Indian security is despicably jeopardised, privacy of citizens is surely outraged. Access was being acquired through the servers of Google, Microsoft and others,” he added.
