Opposition uses NYT report to corner Modi govt

Members of various parties have submitted privilege notices against Ashwini Vaishnaw alleging he misled Parliament

Ashwini Vaishnaw.: File photo

TT Bureau   |   New Delhi   |    01.02.22  : The Opposition has stepped up efforts to corner the Centre by using The New York Times report that says the Narendra Modi government bought the Israeli spyware Pegasus in 2017.

Members of various parties have submitted privilege notices against Union electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw alleging he misled Parliament.

After the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Saugata Roy of the Trinamul Congress, K.C. Venugopal of the Congress, Binoy Viswam of the CPI and V. Sivadasan of the CPM have submitted privilege notices against the minister or the government for stating in Parliament during the monsoon session that the reports about the government using Pegasus were “baseless”.

In most of these notices, the members have contended that the government not only misled Parliament but also lied to the Supreme Court.

The apex court has ordered an inquiry by an independent committee into allegations that the government used Pegasus to snoop on Indian citizens.

While members can submit privilege notices to the presiding officer of their House, it’s up to the Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman to decide whether to admit them and refer them to the respective privilege committees.

Even if the notices are not admitted, the Opposition MPs intend to raise the issue in the House. They revealed their intent to the government during the separate all-party meetings convened by the parliamentary affairs minister and the Rajya Sabha Chairman, M. Venkaiah Naidu, to ensure smooth functioning of the budget session, which began on Monday.

“We told the government, ‘You should help us cooperate with you by allowing us to raise issues that need to be addressed’. This includes the issue of farmers, MSP, sale of PSUs and Pegasus,” Vishwam told The Telegraph. “Where are we to raise these issues if not in Parliament?”

At the meeting convened by Naidu, leader of the House Piyush Goyal told him the government had no legislative business lined up for the first part of the budget session, which ends on February 11.

The NYT last week reported that India and Israel had agreed on the sale of a package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear, worth roughly $2 billion, with Pegasus and a missile system as the centrepiece during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel in 2017.