New Delhi: In a rare defeat for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in parliament, the Standing Committee on Information Technology voted on Wednesday to take up allegations that dozens of citizens were subjected to illegal surveillance by one or more entities in India using an Israeli malware called Pegasus that is installed surreptitiously on smartphones via WhatsApp.
The allegations surfaced earlier this month when it emerged that human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and even politicians in India had been illegally spied upon. Pegasus is sold by an Israeli company called NSO, which needs to procure a license from the Israeli government’s Defence Export Control Agency for every overseas sale.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who chairs the IT committee, shared a statement with the committee members in early November noting that it was important for the parliamentary panel “to establish whether the government has written or complained to the NSO Group about its action in installing the hack required to intercept communications. This is all the more important, since reports suggest that the NSO Group only provided this technology to governmental bodies and not to private citizens.”
“Before passing any judgment,” Tharoor wrote, “we must ascertain the veracity of the information reported in the media. These reports, and the alleged use of the technology, are a matter of grave concern. Therefore, the Standing Committee will consider this matter at its next meeting, scheduled on November 20th.”
Tharoor’s note incorporated two suggestions BJP MP Rajyavardhan Rathore had made to the Lok Sabha secretariat. Accordingly, the agenda was finalised and three Union secretaries – from the IT ministry, the home ministry and the Department of Atomic Energy – were asked to present themselves before the standing committee at 3 pm on November 20.
Though the Lok Sabha speaker had approved the agenda and none of the committee’s members had raised any objection, Rathore took the floor as soon as the meeting was called to order. Citing Rule 331E of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, he insisted the panel did not have the mandate to discuss the WhatsApp snooping matter and that the agenda be scrapped.
This was countered by Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress, who said the same rule made it clear the committee was empowered to consider the ministry’s annual report and since cyber security figured as a subject in the IT ministry’s report, the standing committee had every right to discuss the manner in which Pegasus/WhatsApp was used to spy on citizens.
At this point, the BJP MPs changed tack and invoked Rule 261 – “All questions at any sitting of a committee shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present and voting”. Rathore and Nishikant Dubey said they wanted the committee to vote on whether they could take up the current agenda.
The IT committee has 31 members, of which 16 are either affiliated with the BJP or are government-nominated MPs. At the meeting on Wednesday, 24 MPs were in attendance of which the BJP’s strength was 12. There were, in addition, one MP each from NDA allies Lok Janashakti Party and Shiv Sena, besides one MP each from the TRS and YSR Congress, both of which have tended to side with the BJP.
Knowing the numbers were on his side, Rathore demanded a vote. After some argument on whether the vote would be by a show of hands or a secret ballot, an open vote was held in which 12 MPs supported the scrapping of the agenda while 12 – including the Sena, LJP and TRS – wanted the Pegasus matter to be taken up.
At this point, Tharoor threw the rule book back at the BJP MPs. “In the case of an equality of votes on any matter, the chairperson or the person acting as such shall have a second or casting vote,” says Rule 262 and Tharoor declared the motion (to scrap the agenda) defeated.
According to parliamentary sources, “two and a half hours were wasted” in these procedural wrangles and the secretaries, who were waiting outside all the while, were finally asked to come in at 5:30 pm.
Officials stonewall
IT secretary Ajay Sawhney told the panel that the government was yet to receive any formal communication from WhatsApp about the security breach and that it was up to the affected individuals to pursue the remedies available to them under the Information Technology Act.
Sawhney and other IT ministry officials also said that “officially, we have no names of the affected people.” At this point, Rathore and Dubey insisted that Tharoor not refer to them as “victims”.
The home secretary, who had to leave for a meeting with home minister Amit Shah after waiting two hours, deputed another MHA official to answer questions on behalf of the ministry. According to sources, this official reportedly said that the law permitted specified government agencies to intercept the communication of citizens but that he had no information about the use of Pegasus.
When MPs asked why the government had made no effort to find out from the Israeli government – which licenses each sale of Pegasus – who NSO’s customers in India are, the officials had no answer.