Journalism of Courage
Amid reports that the personal details of 31 world leaders who attended the G-20 summit in November last year, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were accidentally leaked, a senior government official said on Monday that India is preparing to take “necessary action”.
This could involve replacing the existing passport of the PM as that is one of the key details which was leaked, officials privy to this development told The Indian Express.
South Block may also ask the Australian government why it did not bother to convey the “accidental leak” to New Delhi.
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The Guardian reported on Monday that the personal details of world leaders at the last G20 summit were accidentally disclosed by the Australian immigration department, which did not inform the world leaders of the privacy breach. “An employee of the agency inadvertently sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal identifiers of all world leaders attending the summit to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament,” the report in the UK-based newspaper said.
A senior government official said, “We have seen the report and will take necessary action at our end.” Officials confirmed that they had not been informed about the “leak” by their Australian counterparts.
Modi met Australian PM Tony Abbott on Sunday at the state funeral of Singapore’s founder leader Lee Kuan Yew.
When contacted, the Australian High Commission said it had referred the email sent by The Indian Express to its immigration department for a response.
Besides Modi, the Guardian newspaper reported that the details of US president Barack Obama, Russian president Vladimir Putin, German chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese president Xi Jinping, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Indonesian president Joko Widodo and British PM David Cameron were also revealed.
