CPI-M asks government to protest US snooping

The CPI-M Tuesday urged the Indian government to lodge a strong protest against the US snooping activities directed at India and demand its immediate halt.

The CPI-M statement followed a report that the US National Security Agency has been bugging the Indian embassy in Washington alongwith the embassies of 37 other countries.

According to whistleblower Edward Snowden, the US has also been mining internet and telephone data from India on a large scale.

"The UPA government should have strongly protested against such surveillance and bugging," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement.

"Instead, it is shocking that the External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has sought to justify the snooping by stating that 'It is not snooping. It is only computer study and computer analysis of patterns of calls'.

"India has a foreign minister who is not worried that the Indian embassy in Washington is bugged by the US intelligence agency.

"This shameful remark has come at a time when even the close allies of the US like Germany and France have protested against the US snooping on their countries."