Ensure snooping never happens again, India tells US

Reacting strongly to reports of Bharatiya Janata Party being spied upon by US National Security Agency, India on Wednesday summoned a top US diplomat in New Delhi to raise the issue, saying it was "totally unacceptable" that an Indian organisation or Indian individual's privacy was transgressed upon.

India also sought an assurance from the United States that it will not happen again.

However, officials did not say who was the US diplomat summoned by the Union external affairs ministry.

Significantly, the US currently has an interim ambassador Kathleen Stephens who came in after former US ambassador Nancy Powell resigned from her post.

India also noted that it had raised the issue with the US administration in Washington and the embassy in New Delhi in July and November last year when reports emerged that NSA had spied upon individuals and entities and said it was still "awaiting a response from American on this".

India had reacted sharply when the reports of snooping by NSA came to light after revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden last year.

BJP figures in the list of foreign political parties along with Lebanon's Amal, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistan Peoples Party on whom the National Security Agency was given permission to carry out surveillance, says the document made public on Monday by 'The Washington Post'.

The document lists the 193 foreign governments as well as foreign factions and other entities that were part of a 2010 certification approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The list includes India.

"These are the entities about which the NSA may conduct surveillance for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence," the paper had said, citing documents provided to it by Snowden.

Image: An anti-US NSA snooping placard shown during a protest demonstration

Photograph: Reuters