New Delhi: Union Minister VK Singh on Saturday termed the New York Times as “betel media” due to news related to Pegasus spyware and also questioned its credibility. The US newspaper ‘New York Times’ has claimed in a news that the purchase of Pegasus spyware and a missile system was mainly involved in a deal of about two billion dollars in state-of-the-art weapons and intelligence equipment between India and Israel in 2017. .
After this news came to light, many other opposition leaders including former Congress President Rahul Gandhi have started trying to put the government in the dock. Responding to the New York Times report, Singh, the Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Civil Aviation, tweeted: “Can you trust the NYT? It is known as ‘Supari Media’.”
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The matter had sparked a lot of controversy last year and opposition parties created a ruckus in Parliament accusing the government of espionage. However, the government had denied these allegations. The Supreme Court had in October last year constituted a committee of experts to probe into the alleged spying of Indian citizens through Israeli spyware ‘Pegasus’.
An association of some international media groups claimed that Pegasus was allegedly used against several Indian politicians, ministers, social activists, businessmen and journalists.(agency)