The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said that the Opposition wants to discuss the Pegasus snooping row in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The day also saw 519 people and groups across the country writing a letter to the Chief Justice of India, requesting him to intervene in the matter. The letter states that using Pegasus spyware, the phones of journalists, Opposition party leaders and others have been spied on.
Speaking to ANI after the joint meeting of the Congress parliamentary party groups consisting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, Kharge said: “The Pegasus is being discussed in more than 50 countries. What is there to discuss, the Home Minister should come to the House, discuss, give replies to the questions. After that, it will be up to us to take further steps.”
He added, “We have taken MPs views on future strategies. They want a discussion on Pegasus. Prime Minister and Home Minister’s presence is necessary during the discussion. This issue comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Probe on Pegasus is being done in other countries including France and Germany, than why not in India.”
The Opposition has alleged that names of several Indian politicians, journalists, lawyers and activists have appeared on the leaked list of a potential target for surveillance by the unidentified agency using Pegasus software. A joint meeting of Congress parliamentary party groups in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was held on Thursday.
The meeting was held amid continuing protests by the Opposition parties led by the Congress in both Houses over their demands including the probe into allegations of surveillance through Pegasus and the repeal of three new farm laws.
As for the letter written to the Supreme Court, it said: “Human rights defenders have been imprisoned and victims of sexual harassment have also not been spared such shocking forms of state sponsored cyber-crimes, which are analogous to digital forms of state terror.”
“We are deeply disturbed by reports that journalists, lawyers, clients, activists, academics, students, and even complainants of sexual harassment, witnesses and their support persons were made persons of interest and targets of the Pegasus malware. Human rights activists have repeatedly asserted that such hacking as well as other kinds of abuse of office have resulted in malicious prosecution, wrongful imprisonment, custodial torture, and custodial death of political prisoners,” the letter said.
The letter has been signed by various activists, including democratic reforms (Aruna Roy, Anjali Bhardwaj) and human rights (Kavita Srivastava, Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mander), scholars and practitioners of the law and lawyers (Vrinda Grover, Kalpana Kannabiran, Jhuma Sen, Aparna Chandra, Pratiksha Baxi) eminent academics and scientists (Zoya Hasan, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Utsa Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, Rosemary Dzivuchu, Romila Thapar, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Ram Ramaswamy), acclaimed writers (Arundhati Roy, V. Geetha, Githa Hariharan, Amit Chaudhuri), musicians and artists (T.M. Krishna), architects and artists (Pushpamala N., Prem Chandavarkar, Vivian Sundaram), persons in political life (Kavita Krishnan, Manoj Jha, MP), journalists (Anuradha Bhasin, Patricia Mukhim, John Dayal) and others.
WITH ANI INPUTS