JD(S) will be part of TMC-led anti-BJP force: Datta

Senior JD(S) leader YSV Datta claimed that his party would be part of the anti-BJP force that is taking shape under West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Speaking to media persons on Thursday, he said the situation has come in India where all opposition parties have to join hands, just like they did in 1975 keeping their poles apart ideology away, to fight against this "undeclared emergency" in the country.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is using taxpayers’ money to trample upon all democratic system in India through software such as Pegasus. Datta claimed that the Union government has spent at least Rs 2,500 crore of taxpayers money to purchase the snooping software — Pegasus — from Israeli cyber arms firm NSO Group.

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“As per NSO’s own acknowledgement they provide this software only to government and government agencies. They charge Rs 700 crore to hack into 50 mobiles. By that calculation the government has spent nearly Rs 2,500 crore to snoop on journalists, Supreme Court judges, opposition leaders and others,” he said.

Datta said opposition leaders had joined their hands to restore democracy after Indira Gandhi had imposed the emergency in 1975. “There is a need for similar efforts even today against the Modi government,” he said.

However, he failed to explain why JD(S) was not part of the 14 opposition parties that met in Delhi recently demanding a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the Pegasus scandal.

‘CM from JD(S) camp’

Datta termed the new Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as a leader trained in JD(S) camp. “We are proud that one of our own has become chief minister of Karnataka, sidelining several RSS backed leaders,” he said and added that Bommai was more of ‘peace-time’ leader than ‘war-time’ leader.

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“Karnataka today is facing a war-like situation, as it has to tackle Covid-19, floods, water disputes and other major issues. It would be interesting to see how a ‘peace-time' leader tackles these challenges,” he said.