Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday asked who funded the alleged snooping of politicians and journalists by Pegasus and compared it with the Hiroshima bombing, saying while the attack on the Japanese city had resulted in the death of people, the spying by the Israeli software led to “death of freedom”.

Modern technology has taken us back to slavery; he said adding that it is no different from the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.

Claiming that politicians, industrialists and social activists fear they are being spied upon, Raut said that even the judiciary and media are under the same pressure.

“The atmosphere of freedom in the national capital ended a few years ago,” said Raut and also sought to know who paid for the alleged snooping by the Israeli spyware.

Citing a media report, the Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP said that the Israeli company NSO charged Rs 60 crore annually as a license fee for the Pegasus software.

“Who paid for it? The NSO says it sells its software only to governments. If it is so, which government in India purchased the software? Rs 300 crore were spent spying on 300 people in India. Does our country have the capacity to spend so much money on spying?” Raut asked.

An international media consortium had recently reported that several verified mobile phone numbers, including of some ministers, journalists, opposition leaders, and scores of business persons and activists in India were allegedly targeted by using Pegasus spyware.

However, the government has dismissed the allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part on specific people, saying it “has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever”.

BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday attacked the opposition parties and termed Pegasus snooping allegations as “baseless”

“It is baseless. It is issueless. The opposition parties led by Congress do not have any issue which they want to raise for people. That is why they raise this kind of issue,” he added.