Pegasus issue: Parliamentary panel meeting to question govt officials postponed due to lack of quorum

A parliamentary panel meeting that was set to question government officials on Wednesday on the Pegasus spyware issue was postponed due to lack of quorumA number of members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor sat in Parliament to discuss Citizens safety and data protectionHowever BJP members of the panel who were present in the meeting room didnt sign the attendance register in protest leading to a lack of quorum required for holding the meetingThe panels chair Tharoor had said the panel members will question officials from the Information and Technology Ministry and the Home Ministry who will depose before it on the Pegasus issueAlso Read Rahul Gandhi rejects govt charges on Parliament disruption says Opposition united on PegasusBJP members opposed this alleging that when the Congress is not allowing discussion on this issue in Parliament then it cant be discussed in the committee meetingBJP members come to the IT Committee and refuse to sign the attendance register to deny a quorum Further all the witnesses called from MiEIT and MHA wrote in excuses and didnt appear as called to testify Its very clear that Pegasus is a no go area for this government the Congress Karti Chidambaram who is a member of the panel said on TwitterTharoor on Tuesday said the parliamentary panel on information technology will question government officials on allegations relating to suspected phone tapping of politicians journalists and others using Pegasus spyware while asserting that it was the most important issue for many membersSince the beginning of the monsoon session on July 19 both Houses have seen repeated disruptions as opposition parties have been demanding a Supreme Courtmonitored judicial probe in this matterThe 32member Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT was scheduled to meet on Wednesday for which the listed agenda was Citizens data security and privacy according to a notification by Lok Sabha SecretariatThe panel which has the maximum members from the ruling BJP had summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics Information and Technology and the Ministry of Home AffairsAn international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for surveillance using Israeli firm NSOs Pegasus spywareOpposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi two union ministers Prahlad Singh Patel and Railways and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw businessman Anil Ambani a former CBI chief and at least 40 journalists are on the list on the leaked database of NSO It is however not established that all the phones were hackedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever