Congress to raise Pegasus issue in winter session: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the party will raise the Pegasus snooping issue in Parliament during winter session which is likely to commence in November last week.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday in Delhi, he asked who "authorised" pegasus to spy and the party will be raising the issue in Parliament and will try for a discussion in the House.

After the Supreme Court on Wednesday set up a three-member committee to probe the Pegasus spyware snooping allegations, the Congress has welcomed the decision and said that the government was evading and diverting the issue. The Congress had been on the forefront demanding enquiry into the snoopgate.

The committee set up by the Supreme Court will be supervised by a retired top court judge Justice R.V. Raveendran, who will be assisted by Alok Joshi, former IPS officer and Dr Sundeep Oberoi. The Centre had argued that disclosing the details on the use of Pegasus spyware involves national security issues, as it refused to divulge any details. The top court, in its judgment, said mere raising national security by state would not stop it from taking up the issue, and emphasized that national security can't be a bug bear and refused to accept the omnibus denial by the Centre. The bench noted that the Centre filed a limited affidavit, which didn't make anything clear despite it repeatedly saying that the court is not concerned with issues of national security.

The former Congress President also raised the issue of inflation and said that in GDP (Gas, Diesel and Petrol), the government is earning huge amount of money and it's a direct attack on the consumer as it affects directly and indirectly as it also increases inflation.