Manish Tewari gives adjournment motion notice in LS over Pegasus report

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Friday moved an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha over the Pegasus report, an issue among others that has led to repeated adjournments of both the Houses of Parliament since the Monsoon Session commenced. Terming the Pegasus issue a "matter of grave concern", Tewari stated that various reports have pointed out that the Government of India has procured the surveillance tool Pegasus developed by Israeli company NSO Group for surveillance of Journalists, Civil Society Activists, Politicians and Supreme Court Judges.

He further stated that the NSO group's policy is that clients are confined to "vetted governments" only it suggests that the spyware was used by the Government of India (GoI) and not any other private body. Reputed agencies like Citizen Lab have found traces of the spyware onsome of the devices that were attacked, said the Congress MP in the adjournment motion notice.

"It should be noted that this kind of surveillance classifies as hacking, which is what a spyware does and it would very much qualify as "unauthorised interception" or hacking as per Information Technology Act, 2000," read the notice. "The fact is that the government has not categorically denied that Pegasus has been used officially. Sir this is a matter of grave concern and therefore I wish to raise the same," he added.

Meanwhile, amid sloganeering by Opposition Members of Parliament, the Lok Sabha was on Thursday adjourned for the third time till 4 pm. Earlier on Thursday, the Lower House was adjourned for the first time till 12 noon then for the second time till 2 pm.

Before the House was scheduled to convene, at 11 am on Thursday, Congress MP Manish Tewari gave adjournment motion notice in the Lower House over the 'Pegasus Project' issue. The business of both the Houses of the Parliament remained majorly disrupted due to the continuous ruckus created by the Opposition over the issues including farmers' protest, Pegasus spyware, COVID-19 and inflation.

The Monsoon Session commenced on July 19 and is scheduled to continue till August 13.