Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday, November 1, slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government over alleged state-sponsored hackers targeting mobile phones of Opposition leaders. The comments came a day after multiple Opposition leaders revealed that they received warnings from the tech company Apple about state-sponsored surveillance attacks on their devices.

Chidambaram said that after the Pegasus mystery (during which the Pegasus spyware was allegedly used for surveillance of multiple opposition leaders, journalists and activists) which has not been resolved till date, the finger of suspicion points to a government agency for the new allegations.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Chidambaram slammed the government and said, “It is undeniable that hundreds of Opposition leaders got an alert from Apple of a state-sponsored attempt to compromise their phones.”

“Why only Opposition leaders? Who will be interested in compromising the phones of Opposition leaders? After the Pegasus mystery, (not resolved until this date), the finger of suspicion points to a government agency. At the moment it is only a suspicion,” he added.

A major row erupted on Tuesday after several Opposition Members of Parliaments and leaders revealed that they received a notification from Apple stating that there was an attempt to compromise their devices by “state-sponsored attackers.”