New Delhi: Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned multiple times on Tuesday as members of the opposition continued their vociferous protests on the Pegasus snooping issue, seeking an independent judicial probe into the matter. The illegal surveillance scandal was first exposed by an international consortium of media organisations, including The Wire.
Apart from the reports by the Pegasus Project partners, the issue of the farmers’ demand to repeal the three Central farm laws and petrol prices skyrocketing have also been raised by opposition members.
However, it was the Pegasus issue which has dominated proceedings in both Houses so far. As soon as the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha resumed their sessions, the opposition members began raising slogans in support of their demands for a probe.
In the Lok Sabha, Congress MPs Manish Tewari and Manickam Tagore gave adjournment notices over the Pegasus issue. Tagore demanded a discussion on the Pegasus Project reports and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be present for them.
Though ignoring the demands of the opposition members, the House took up the Question Hour for 25 minutes. Loud protests by MPs of the Congress-led UPA and the Trinamool Congress led to the first adjournment till 11:45 am. The Wire’s reporting has revealed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee were both potential targets of surveillance for an Indian client of the NSO Group, the Israeli company which manufactures the software.
The TMC MPs also held aloft placards which read, “Master of Digital Invasion” and “Big Brother is watching”. While the members raised slogans against the Union government, TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee urged the prime minister to come to the House to make a statement on the snooping charges.
For his part, the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla urged the need to have normal proceedings. He also assured the opposition that discussions on issues they desire would be allowed provided the decorum is maintained and the proceedings are not disrupted.
However, the Union government did not appear to be in a mood to relent to the opposition’s demands. The tone of Union agriculture minister Narendra Tomar’s remarks and his accusing the opposition of “destroying the dignity of the House” revealed the government’s approach towards dealing with the protests.
Stating that 15 questions related to farmers and villages were listed in the day’s business, Tomar said, “If the opposition members feel even the slightest pain of the farmers, the slightest loyalty towards the farmers, then they should sit in their places peacefully. You should raise your issue through these questions and listen to the reply of the government.”
Further, he charged that “due to the uproar, the dignity of the house is being destroyed”.
SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and other party MPs protest against the farm laws as AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam walks past them, during the Monsoon Session of parliament, New Delhi, July 27, 2021. Photo: PTI /Kamal Kishore
In the Rajya Sabha too, the proceedings were adjourned on multiple occasions due to the protests. While the opposition members sought a discussion and a probe into the Pegasus issue, the Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu did not accept the demand citing their behaviour. The House was first adjourned until noon, and thereafter until 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm as the opposition kept up the loud slogan shouting each time it assembled.
When proceedings began at noon, deputy chairman Harivansh announced the Question Hour. But the opposition members trooped into the well and stalled the proceedings. The deputy chairman then charged that the opposition members were denying others the right to ask questions. “Members who are in the well are snatching the rights of others,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
In the upper house too, the Union government appeared in no mood to relent to the opposition’s demand for an independent probe and a discussion on the Pegasus issue. The deputy leader of the house Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the words and language used by the opposition for the prime minister as “highly objectionable”.
The Wire has so far revealed more than 150 names of those figuring in the snoop list. The presence of a person’s phone number in the leaked database does not necessarily mean that they were infected by Pegasus. Only a forensic analysis of the person’s phone can reveal whether there was a successful or attempted hack.