Opposition unlikely to bring up Pegasus issue during rest of Budget Session

The Opposition is unlikely to take up the Pegasus spyware issue during the remaining part of Parliament’s ongoing Budget Session even as individual lawmakers may raise it as the government has said it is sub-judice and refused any debate on the matter.

The issue was back in the news after the New York Times on January 28 reported the government purchased Pegasus in 2017 as a part of a $2-billion deal with Israel for military hardware and intelligence tools. The report triggered a fresh storm in India two days before the start of the session.

“The Supreme Court is looking into the issue. Moreover, the government has not agreed to any debate on Pegasus saying the matter is sub-judice. There is little scope to raise it,” said a Congress strategist, requesting anonymity.

The Supreme Court set up an expert committee of computer science, cybersecurity, and digital forensics experts under the supervision of retired judge R V Raveendran to probe into the matter in October. This came months after an international consortium of media outlets in July reported phones of Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen, and journalists were among the 50,000 that were potentially targeted by Pegasus hacking software.

The spyware controversy disrupted Parliament’s Monsoon Session last year as the Opposition sought a debate and reply from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government insisted illegal snooping was impossible.

Parliament usually refrains from discussing matters pending before the courts even as there is no bar on taking them up.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on January 31 said there was no scope for a separate discussion or debate on the Pegasus issue during the Budget Session as the matter was pending before the court.

An Opposition lawmaker said they had other issues to highlight in the Budget Session. “Price rise and unemployment are two important issues and as lawmakers, it is our responsibility to raise people’s issues,” said the lawmaker, requesting anonymity.

Even as a section of the Congress and the Left was keen to raise the Pegasus issue, other Opposition parties found little merit in doing so as the matter dominated the earlier session. “We still tried to raise it...in the House. But if the government does not want to debate, it is difficult to push it beyond a limit. Otherwise, we have to again disrupt the session but we would not politically gain from it,” said the Congress strategist cited above.

The strategist said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been vocal on the Pegasus issue, chose to talk about a wider set of subjects including the price rise, unemployment, federalism, etc. “His speech [during the Budget Session] made such an impact that the Prime Minister had to spend nearly his entire time [during his reply] responding to his (Gandhi’s) points.”