Tharoor’s claim in Pegasus case: Congress MP said – BJP MPs interrupted the meeting of IT committee, it seems that the officers should be instructed not to come to testify

In a conversation with news agency PTI, Tharoor expressed hope that the committee would take up the issue of espionage later.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday made some revelations in the Pegasus espionage case. Tharoor is also the chairman of the IT Committee of Parliament. He says that the BJP MPs in the committee interrupted the meeting called on July 28 as they did not want the issue to be discussed.

Talking to news agency PTI, Tharoor said that the officers who were supposed to testify in the committee meeting on that day seem to have been directed not to attend. Tharoor, however, expressed hope that the committee would take up the issue of Pegasus espionage later.

Recommendation of action on officers who do not attend the meeting
Tharoor has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asking him to take action against the officials of the ministry who did not attend the meeting. He also said that the panel has the prerogative to call witnesses. It was a serious attack on the three officers making last-minute excuses to distance themselves from the meeting.

The Congress MP also hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks. The Prime Minister had said that the opposition was insulting the Parliament. To this, Tharoor said the government denies being accountable in any way on an issue of national and international importance. It is a mockery of democracy and the common Indians whom the government claims to represent.

In future, the committee will definitely question this issue.
When asked whether the IT committee would be able to take up the issue of Pegasus espionage going forward. Tharoor said that the committee has been discussing cyber security along with data privacy and security of citizens for two years. He said that the Pegasus issue clearly comes under the purview of the committee. So it is expected that when these topics come up, its members will ask questions about it.

There is a case of espionage of 300 Indians
The news portal ‘The Wire’ has claimed in its report that the Indian government has spied around 300 Indians from 2017 to 2019. These people include journalists, lawyers, social workers, opposition leaders and businessmen. The government had hacked the phones of these people through Pegasus spyware made by the Israeli company. The government has denied all the allegations as baseless.

Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, a Paris-based organization, have a list of about 50,000 phone numbers. These organizations claim that this is the same number which has been hacked through Pegasus spyware. Both the institutions have shared this list with 16 media organizations around the world. After weeks of investigation, it has been revealed that the governments of many countries are conducting espionage.

Uproar in both houses of Parliament over Pegasus scandal
Most of the proceedings of the monsoon session of Parliament have been tumultuous. One reason for this is also the Pegasus espionage scandal. This has had an impact on both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The entire opposition is united in this matter and is holding meetings outside Parliament. At the same time, the government is accusing the opposition of running away from the discussion.

Investigation started in France on journalist’s complaint
The names of Edvi Planel, the founder of Mediapar, an investigative journalism organization in France, and his associate journalist Lenag Bredeau, whose phones were spied through Pegasus, are also on the list. Mediapar is the same NGO, on whose complaint the investigation of corruption in the Rafale case has started in France. Mediapar’s investigative journalist Lenag Bredeau has also filed a complaint in France in the Pegasus case. After this the investigation of the case has been started.