Lok Sabha adjourned amid Pegasus protests
NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Tuesday as the Opposition stepped up its attack over the reports of the government using an Israeli phone hacking software to hack the phones of prominent leaders, journalists and activists.
Soon after the House assembled at 3 pm, the opposition members again started raising slogans on the Pegasus snooping issue, forcing the chair to adjourn the House for the day.
The Lok Sabha will now meet on Thursday.
This was the second day of the Monsoon Session that the House could not transact any legislative business. On Monday, the Opposition had disrupted the proceedings over a variety of issues, including price rise and three farm laws.
Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned twice after the Opposition created a ruckus over snooping and other issues.
Opposition members, including from the Congress and the TMC, started raising slogans and showing placards to attack the government on the snooping issue as soon as the House met for the day at 11 am.
The proceedings lasted for barely five minutes. The same scene was witnessed when the House reassembled at 2 pm.
One of the placards read that while people are suffering from unemployment, the government is busy with “jasoosi” (spying). The slogan was in Hindi.
The Congress has demanded a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee after reports of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Jal Shakti minister of state Prahlad Singh Patel, as also former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa and poll strategist Prashant Kishor being among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through the Israeli
spyware sold only to government agencies, an international media consortium has reported.
The consortium – which comprises 17 media organisations, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, Le Monde and Indian news website The Wire – published on Sunday that 38 Indian journalists, including three current Hindustan Times staffers and one from sister publication Mint, were among 180 journalists potentially targeted worldwide, including Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf, and reporters from the Wall Street Journal, CNN, New York Times, and Le Monde.
To be sure, as the methodology of the investigation explains, the presence of a number does not indicate the individual’s phone was hacked — just that it was of interest.
Leaders of various political parties also met before the start of proceedings in both houses of Parliament to decide their strategy on the issue. Several of them had also given adjournment
notices in both houses demanding a discussion on the issue.
Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said the government should clearly tell whether it has purchased the Pegasus spyware or not.
“We had given adjournment notices in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha to hold a discussion on the violation of national security and the fundamental rights under the Constitution over the phone tapping issue,” Gohil told reporters.
He said the party’s demand is that the government should order a joint parliamentary committee probe into the snooping and phone tapping issue.
“The minister, who was trying to create confusion on the matter should answer clearly whether the government has bought the Pegasus spyware or not. If yes, then the government should order a joint parliamentary committee probe to investigate the entire matter,” he said.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) members alleged that party MP Abhishek Banerjee’s phone number was selected for surveillance. Abhishek Banerjee is the nephew of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
YSRCP members also flagged the issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh.
Speaker Om Birla said it is not right to disrupt the House and the government is ready to give answers on any matter.
“Please go back to your seats. I will facilitate a debate on every issue. (But) sloganeering is not right. The government is ready to debate on whatever issues you want to debate on,” he said.
The issue of “snooping” using the Pegasus spyware has snowballed into a massive political row in Parliament and outside as various parties are demanding a thorough investigation and sacking of home minister Amit Shah.
The government on Monday categorically rejected in Lok Sabha allegations of snooping on politicians, journalists and others using Pegasus software, asserting that illegal surveillance was not possible with checks and balances in the country’s laws, and alleged that attempts were being made to malign Indian democracy.
A highly invasive malware, Pegasus can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device, effectively turning a phone into a pocket spy. In some cases, it can be installed without the need to trick a user into initiating a download. In 2019, WhatsApp disclosed that 121 users from India were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using Pegasus.
The NSO group called the investigation “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”, and said it sold its software “solely to law enforcement and intelligence agencies of vetted governments”.
The investigation is based on a data leak of around 50,000 numbers obtained by Amnesty International and Paris-based Forbidden Stories, a non-profit organisation.
Amnesty International subsequently forensically investigated 67 of these phones, and found 23 hacked and 14 showing signs of attempted penetration. The Wire reported that 10 of the phones forensically examined in India showed they had either been hacked or signs of an attempted hacking.