Tharoor, Dubey spar amid row over officials missing IT panel meet
Congress lawmaker and chairperson of the parliamentary panel on information technology Shashi Tharoor on Friday told Hindustan Times that the Bharatiya Janata Party, members of which boycotted a committee meeting on Pegasus and the cinematograph act amendments, may need the same institutions to stand for them at some
point, before fellow panel member and BJP’s Nishikant Dubey hit out afresh calling for his sacking.
The spat escalated late on Friday when Tharoor posted a George Bernard Shaw quote in response to what he said were “certain uncouth & obnoxious comments”, without naming anyone. The quote read: “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and besides, the pig likes it”.
Dubey quoted Tharoor’s tweet and wrote in Hindi: “Yes, I am a pig.”
The exchange traces back to Tharoor and opposition MPs’ insistence on pursuing the Pegasus controversy. The panel summoned officials of the Union home ministry, department of telecommunications, and electronics and IT on Thursday, before each of them conveyed at the last moment they could not attend it.
Tharoor, who wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking action against these officials, told HT on Friday that the developments set a dangerous precedent
for Parliamentary accountability and democracy. “This is unprecedented and extremely dangerous,” said Tharoor.
The meeting was eventually called off as the BJP members boycotted it, leaving it without the quorum of adequate presence for the meeting to proceed. “Tomorrow, the BJP can find itself in need of the institutions it is undermining,” Tharoor said.
Dubey on Friday separately wrote to the Speaker for a second time in recent days, reiterating Tharoor should be sacked as the panel head. “For achieving their(Congress) nefarious objectives of maligning the smooth functioning of the Government as well as the Parliament, my learned Chairperson has now become a harbinger of all vicious activities which is not expected from an experienced individual, who had also occupied various positions in the government,” Dubey said.
Opposition leader, journalists, activists, and a former election commissioner are believed to have been selected for targeting with Pegasus, a military-grade mobile device surveillance tool.
The allegations have triggered protests in Parliament, triggering disruptions. The government has called allegations of snooping baseless and devoid of facts.