Centre says US spying unacceptable

New Delhi: Strongly reacting to reports that the BJP was spied upon by America’s NSA, the government on Wednesday summoned a top US diplomat in New Delhi to flag its concerns, saying it was “highly objectionable” and “unacceptable”, and sought an assurance it would not happen again.

“As a government, we have already communicated to the US government and we have said we have seen reports in the US media on authorisation given to entities of the US government to intrude on the privacy of communications of the Indian government, its citizens and its entities. Now we have also asked the US if such intrusions had indeed been authorised and taken place. And our view is that, should this have happened, these are highly objectionable,” the MEA spokesman said.

He did not, however, spell out which US diplomat was summoned by the MEA, saying the “messenger is not important”, but the message was communicated “clearly”.

The US has promised to revert once it determines what kind of information it can share on the questions raised by India.