Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp — what Gandhis, Kejriwal, Badals use to keep their calls private
India

Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp — what Gandhis, Kejriwal, Badals use to keep their calls private

Privacy concerns & new technologies have ushered in a new era of exchanges between politicians, with many now opting for apps offering better levels of encryption.

   
File photo of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

File photo of Sonia Gandhi | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

New Delhi: Amid apprehensions of surveillance and phone tapping, politicians in India are getting inventive with the applications they use to communicate with each other.

Privacy concerns, coupled with new technologies in the market, have ushered in a new era of exchanges between politicians with many of them opting for apps that offer better levels of encryption such as Signal and Telegram. 

“Sonia Gandhi uses Signal to make phone calls some times,” a Congress functionary told ThePrint. “Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, switches between Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp.” 

Congress, it turns out, isn’t the only party to make a switch from the traditional landline and mobile calling routes.   

And the switch hasn’t come about after revelations in September that the Israeli spy software Pegasus had been used to hack into WhatsApp numbers of human rights activists, lawyers and journalists in India.

While Pegasus claimed that it sold its software to only government agencies, Union Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Parliament on 28 November that the government had not used Pegasus to carry out any unauthorised interception of communication on WhatsApp.  

The Congress claimed last month that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party’s general secretary in charge of UP (East), had received a message from WhatsApp informing her that she was one of the victims of the recently discovered hack. 

“There is a big cloud suspicion on the privacy factor of WhatsApp at present. The current government is addicted to snooping and stealing data and that is a genuine worry,” Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told ThePrint. 

As a result, say Congress insiders, Signal with its promise of data encryption has become the new ‘buzz word’ in the Congress party. A host of other senior leaders also use FaceTime audio, a service offered exclusively on the Apple iPhone.   


Also read: The rise of Pegasus and why India should know the problem with hiring ‘internet mercenaries’ 


Privacy concerns 

For Aam Aadmi Party and its chief Arvind Kejriwal it is the subject of the conversation that determines what application he uses, a source in the party told ThePrint.

“Many people in the party are using Signal now,” said an AAP leader. “What application we use is contingent on the kind of conversation we are having.”   

AAP spokesperson Raghav Chaddha said the matter was a personal choice and need not be disclosed. “We meet in person when we have to,” said Chaddha. “We are the most transparent party.” 

For Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, regular phone calls are the easiest route. 

“What can we do about the hacks? That’s for the government to fix,” she told ThePrint. “We are old people, not that tech-savvy,” she added, saying that she had no idea what Signal was. 

Dastidar said that when Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wanted to speak, she used the most old-school method. 

“If she (Mamata Banerjee) has to call me, she calls on the landline,” Dastidar said.  


Also read: WhatsApp hack lasted 2 weeks, but Israeli spyware used on Indians since 2017


BJP has ‘nothing to hide’ 

The BJP, meanwhile, says it has nothing to hide so it doesn’t need such applications. 

“I personally use Telegram at times as it helps filter out a lot of spam messages,” Rajya Sabha MP and vice-president of the BJP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told ThePrint.

“When Prime Minister Modi or BJP president Amit Shah want to speak to us, they reach us directly on the landline. We are a transparent party and have nothing to hide.” 

Sources in the party said that both Shah and Modi prefer to use the landline. 

“We normally use mobile and landline to communicate,” said MoS Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy. “When the PMO calls, it is usually from a landline number that is not traceable.” 

He added that the BJP had nothing to hide so doesn’t need to use Signal or WhatsApp.  “What is Signal, I didn’t even know about the app,” he joked. 

Other union ministers Giriraj Singh, Harsh Vardhan, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Mansukh Mandaviya echoed the same sentiments. 

“We are not so tech-savvy,” said Mandaviya. “Normal phone calls work best for us.” 

Mandaviya uses Calendar and the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha apps. 

According to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the level of security offered on all three platforms — WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal — are practically all the same. 

“I use Telegram and Signal too,” he said. “But there isn’t much difference in the level of security when it comes to the three.” 

But BJP’s allies prefer WhatsApp. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal, said they prefer WhatsApp. Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal too said that she preferred WhatsApp calls. 

 “WhatsApp calls are safer compared to normal calls,” Sukhbir told ThePrint.  


Also read: In India, it’s save-the-internet time once again