Misuse of Pegasus Was Enabled by Governments Ignoring Calls to Reform Intelligence Agencies
Since Independence, every Union government brushed aside opportunities to create oversight mechanisms which are common in other parts of the world.
Illustration: The Wire
Rights28/Jul/2021
When India won Independence, it had the choice of two models for its intelligence agencies. One was the United States’s version, which gave intelligence work a legal basis, insisting on accountability and transparency through a system of checks and balances. George Washington, one of the founding fathers of the US, established this principle in his first State of the Union address in January 1790 by requesting the US Congress for funds to finance intelligence operations. The US passed the National Security Act in 1947 and the CIA Act in 1949 to cement these principles.