Delhi to raise spying issue with US
India on Wednesday said that it would raise the issue of spying by American intelligence agencies on its mission in Washington with the concerned authorities during the course of the cyber-security dialogue even as it termed reports on the matter as “disconcerting.”
Reacting to reports revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden that Indian embassy in the US was among the list of 38 diplomatic missions which were being spied upon by American intelligence agencies, the External affairs spokesperson Syed Akbarrudin said, “We have seen and studied the media reports of our embassy in Washington being amongst the list of diplomatic missions which were intrusively monitored by the US agencies.”
He further said, “Obviously, we are concerned at such disconcerting reports and we will certainly raise with the US authorities these serious allegations.”
The spokesman further said that there was a huge difference between meta text and assessment of the meta text as part of the surveillance programme and intrusive monitoring of the mission. He said, “Since these are technical issues, this will be taken up during cyber security dialogue and that is the right forum.”
When asked about Union external affairs minister Salman Khurshid’s assertion that it was not snooping but just computer analysis of patterns of calls and emails, Mr Akbarrudin said, “Our views remain what we have said previously, that we were concerned.” However he emphasised that the minister was “only elaborating” on his discussions with the US secretary of state John Kerry over the issue.
Mr Khurshid in Brunei had said on Tuesday, “This is not scrutiny and access to actual messages. It is only computer analysis of patterns of calls and emails that are being sent. It is not actually snooping specifically on content of anybody’s message or conversation.”
This was completely at variance with what the ministry had said earlier. The ministry had termed as “unacceptable” any privacy violation that the US had resorted to as part of its National Security Agency’s secret spy programme PRISM.
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