News Analysis India

Tag: Watergate scandal

  • ‘Worse than the Watergate scandal: Mamata Banerjee on Pegasus snooping row

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that the snooping on Supreme Court judges, journalists and political leaders among others using the Pegasus spyware, news of which broke earlier this week, was “worse than the Watergate scandal” which broke in the US during the Nixon presidency.

    ALSO READ | West Bengal BJP accuses Mamata govt of snooping using PegasusBanerjee likened the scandal which allegedly involved using a spyware developed by a Israeli firm to infect the mobile phones of hundreds of Indians in a bid to spy on them to the imposition of a “super-emergency in the country”.

    The chief minister claimed that all impartial institutions have been politicised by the BJP-led Government.

    “Pegasus is worse than Watergate scandal; it is super emergency,” Banerjee told a press conference at the state secretariat here.

    “They (BJP leadership) don’t trust even their own officers and ministers,” she said, adding “I have heard they tapped the phones of several RSS people” .

    The chief minister recently managed to win a high voltage electoral battle to elect the state legislature after a bitter campaign where she was pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  • Dan Stevens replaces Armie Hammer in Julia Roberts-starrer Watergate series ‘Gaslit’

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Actor Dan Stevens has joined Hollywood stars Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in Watergate series “Gaslit”, an upcoming anthology based on award-winning podcast “Slow Burn”. According to Variety, set up at Starz, the first season of the Robbie Pickering-created show will focus on the Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon in 1974.

    Stevens, who has previously starred in television hits such as “Downton Abbey” and “Legion”, will play former White House counsel John Dean replacing actor Armie Hammer, who fell off the show in the wake of sexual assault allegations.

    “The show focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal – from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates, to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down,” the plotline reads.

    Roberts will star as Martha Mitchell, a celebrity Arkansan socialite and wife to Nixon’s loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell (Penn). “Captain Fantastic” director Matt Ross will helm the series, which will be produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, for Starz.