Providing official secret information to journalist ‘criminal act’: Rahul Gandhi on purported Arnab chats

Providing official secret info to a journalist is a “criminal act” and each the giver and the receiver must go to jail, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi mentioned on Tuesday referring to the purported WhatsApp chats of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami doing the rounds of social media.
Addressing a press convention, Gandhi mentioned solely 5 folks — Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Home Minister, Air Force chief and National Security Advisor — have been aware of the data, referring to allegations that the reported chats confirmed Goswami being aware of the Balakot air strikes beforehand.
“Information was with 4-5 people. In such missions, information is not given to the pilot, it was with the Air Chief, Prime Minister, Home Minister, Defence Minister and NSA. Out of these five people, one has given information to this person. This is a criminal act. We will have to find out who did it, and both (the giver and the receiver) will have to go to jail,” he mentioned.
“This process should start, but this process will not start because the prime minister may have given the information,” he alleged.
Addressing a press convention right here, Gandhi mentioned, “The law will take its own course, but I have an observation. This was top-secret information, this was not provided to anybody else.”
“Giving official secret information to a journalist is a criminal act, both on the part of the person who accepted it and on the part of the person who gave it,” he mentioned.
These folks name themselves patriots, however there may be nothing patriotic about placing the Air Force in danger, the Congress chief mentioned.
He mentioned there may be nothing patriotic about taking political benefit over the strikes.

“If Mr Arnab Goswami knows, if it is on his WhatsApp, I assume the Pakistanis also know it. It is not a very big jump. It is a criminal act and that investigation should begin,” Gandhi mentioned.
Referring to the contents of the purported chats, Gandhi mentioned the distressing factor is that after the 2019 Pulwama assault, the journalist mentioned that “this is good for us”.

“This is a reflection of the mind of the prime minister that it is good that 40 of our people have been killed and we will win the elections,” he alleged.
On February 26, 2019, India had launched airstrikes on what was mentioned to be JeM”s coaching camp in Pakistan”s Balakot.