Trinamool Congress leader alleges data breach of several politicians, journos who took Covid jab

Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale on Monday alleged that the data of several citizens, including politicians and journalists who took Covid vaccine, has been leaked and queried why the Centre was not aware of the incident.

In a series of tweets, Gokhale, who is spokesperson of Trinamool Congress, said: "SHOCKING: There has been a major data breach of Modi government where personal details of all vaccinated Indians including their mobile numbers, Aadhaar numbers, Passport numbers, Voter ID, Details of family members etc. have been leaked and are freely available."

He cited the example of data breach of several opposition MPs, including Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and K.C. Venugopal, Deputy Chairman Rajya Sabha Haribansh Narayan Singh, Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Sanjay Raut.

He also said that data of several senior journalists including Rajdeep Sardesai of India Today, Barkha Dutt of Mojo Story, Dhanya Rajendran of The NewsMinute, Rahul Shivshankar of Times Now have also been breached.

"The personal details of literally every Indian who got a Covid-19 vaccination are freely available on this leaked database," he said.

Firing salvos at the Central government, Gokhale said: "Question is how did personal details including passport no, Aadhaar no., etc. get leaked when Modi Government claims it follows "strong data security"? Why is the Modi government inclunding Home Ministry not aware of this leak and why haven't Indians been informed about a data breach? Who has the Modi government given access to sensitive personal data of Indians incl Aadhaar and Passport nos. which enabled this leak?"

He said that this is a matter of serious national concern.

"And predictably, the Minister in-charge of this is Ashwini Vaishnaw who heads the Electronics, Communications, and IT portfolios in addition to Railways. How long will incompetence of Ashwini Vaishnaw be ignored by PM Modi?" Gokhale asked.

His remarks come in the wake of the alleged data breach of several citizens after taking Covid vaccines. (IANS/NS)