Not bothered about phone being tapped: H D Kumaraswamy on Pegasus report

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday played down the latest revelations in the Pegasus snooping row that his personal secretary Satish was a possible target for surveillance when he was the chief minister of the coalition government that got toppled two years ago.

It is also reported that then Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and a close aide of senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah were possible targets for surveillance at the time.

Also read — Pegasus snooped on Karnataka leaders, their aides just before Congress-JD(S) government toppled in 2019: Report

Speaking to reporters, Kumaraswamy said he was not much bothered about the probability of his phone being tapped. "Over the last 15-20 years, phone tapping by governments has become common. Even the Income Tax Department does it. It is not just after the Narendra Modi government came to power, even the Congress has played such mischief in the past," he said.

Since he was confident that he had done nothing to put the nation's security in jeopardy during his tenure as the chief minister or otherwise, he said he would not want to bother much about either his or Satish's phone being tapped.

Also read — Pegasus row: Congress demands probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee

Further, instead of bothering about phone tapping, all politicians should focus on other important matters, he opined. "The nation is in a bad shape right now. The focus must be on improving the lives of the common man," he said.