New Delhi: Denied a discussion on the Pegasus snooping issue over the past three weeks of the Monsoon Session, the Opposition on Tuesday, August 10, used the debate on the Constitution Amendment bill for restoring states’ power to make their own OBC lists to raise the spyware issue.
During the debate on the amendment, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said countries like Israel, Hungary and France have ordered investigations into the matter of suspected snooping.
The Pegasus Project – an international media consortium including The Wire in India – released reports on how politicians, journalists and activists appear to have been targeted for surveillance or successfully snooped upon with the use of the Pegasus spyware produced by the NSO Group, which claims to only sell to ‘vetted governments’.
Chowdhury asked why the Narendra Modi government has not accepted the Opposition’s demand for a discussion on the issue and why it was “afraid” of debating it. Speaker Om Birla urged him to stick to discussing the Bill.
Referring to the charge that a number of politicians, legal functionaries, businessmen and journalists were spied upon, Chowdhury said while several other countries have decided to probe the allegations, India has not done so. “What happened here? We are afraid of discussing a small matter, the Pegasus snooping issue, in Parliament. We are running away. Why? This was our issue,” he said.
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Chowdhury also defended his party against the charge by BJP MPs that it had not allowed the Lok Sabha to function by resorting to repeated disruptions by saying that the onus of ensuring that the House transacts its business lies with the government.
Since the first day of the Monsoon Session, July 19, Opposition parties have been asking for a discussion on the issue in both the Houses, but in vain.
The Pegasus issue also figured in the Rajya Sabha today and the House was adjourned multiple times due to continued protests by the Opposition members.
Today, when the House assembled at 11 am, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said he has received notices under Rule 267 from four MPs – Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray of TMC, Elamaram Kareem of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and and Binoy Viswam of CPI – for the suspension of the business so that a discussion on to Pegasus spyware issue could be taken up.
However, Naidu did not allow the discussion saying, “The matter has already been taken up and members were called to ask for supplementaries, clarification and it did not happen. So, I did not allow it.” He also noted that while the House was sitting for the 16th time during the Monsoon Session, it has only been able to function at the rate of one hour per day.
Though Naidu tried to impress the need for having a discussion on the farmers’ issues, saying it was scheduled, this did not prevent the Opposition members from continuing with their protests on the Pegasus issue. A large number of MPs entered the Well of the House and raising slogans in favour of their demand for a discussion and a probe into the Pegasus matter.
As some of the members also displayed placards, Naidu was heard saying that they were preventing a scheduled discussion on the farmers’ issue. However, as the protests continued, the House was adjourned.