NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday slammed the government over media reports of government carrying out surveillance of citizens and flouting their Right to Privacy in the process.Accusing the Modi dispensation of seeking to create a surveillance state, Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari said BJP government was creating an ‘Orwellian state’ by indulging in a “premeditated conspiracy”.Tewari was referring to reports that cellphone operators had red-flagged ‘surveillance’ by the government on ground that they were asked to share call records of all users in parts of the country, including the national Capital.“The reports which have emerged in the public are extremely disturbing because the government has decided to carry out mass surveillance of citizens of India. A sinister, pre-meditated and orchestrated plot has been put in place in order to unleash a mass surveillance programme on the citizens, which is an absolute transgression of the Right to Privacy guaranteed by the SC in a 9-0 judgment,” Tewari said.Congress condemned the “assault on the fundamental freedom” and said national security cannot be the fig leaf behind which every crime is legitimised.“You cannot do it on a blanket basis ... What the government has done is a monstrous crime. It is an illegality which has been committed. It is an assault on the fundamental rights of citizens,” Tewari said.Later in the day, the Congress from its twitter handle also attacked the government. “Spying on their own citizens is not new to the BJP. Only an insecure government would take such a step defying the Right to Privacy as declared by the Supreme Court. Do SC verdicts mean nothing to the BJP?” the party said. CPM chief Sitaram Yechury also criticised the government’s move. “They are blind to all the sufferings and hardships of the people, which are caused by their policies and actions. They instead focus on illegal surveillance of the people. It is the most inhuman and totalitarian government India has ever seen,” Yechury said on twitter.