'Opposition indulging in destructive politics': IT Minister on 'state-sponsored' hacking allegations

New Delhi: Responding to the claims of opposition leaders that they have received a warning message from Apple about 'state-sponsored attackers' potentially targeting their iPhones and other devices, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that the people who cannot see the growth of the country are doing destructive politics.

The Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology said that such advisories have been sent to people in 150 countries.

"From the mail sent from Apple, it can be understood that they have no clear information, they have sent alerts on the basis of an estimate. This is vague. Apple has released a clarification that the allegations by compulsive critics are not true. Such advisories have been sent to people in 150 countries. The people who cannot see the growth of the country are doing destructive politics," Vaishnaw said in a press briefing.

The minister further said that this is a falsehood that some compulsive critics are trying to spread.

"Whenever these compulsive critics do not have any major issue, the only thing they say is surveillance. They tried this a few years back as well, we conducted a proper investigation, and the matter was supervised by the judiciary also but nothing came out of that including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who said that her two children's phones were hacked but nothing of that sort happened. This is a falsehood that some compulsive critics are trying to spread," he said.

Earlier in the day, several opposition leaders of different political parties including Shashi Tharoor, Raghav Chadha, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Asaduddin Owaisi and others alleged that their Apple devices have been the victim of alleged hacking.

The leaders shared the purported screenshots of the warning received on their Apple devices.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who is facing 'cash for query' allegations and has been summoned by the Lok Sabha Ethics Panel on the same, too, received the warning message from Apple.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi targeted the Modi government over the "Apple warning message" and said it was trying to divert the attention of people from real issues.

(ANI)