Congress MP Manish Tewari gives adjournment notice in LS over Pegasus report

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday gave adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha on the 'Pegasus project' media report.

Congress MP said that 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.

"I hereby give notice of my intention to ask for leave to move a motion for the adjournment of the business of the house for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent importance, namely:- 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. Since the NSO group's policy is that clients are confined to "vetted governments" only it suggests that the spyware was used by the GoI and not any other private body," Congress MP said in his notice.

He further added that reputed agencies like Citizen Lab have found traces of spyware on some of the devices that were attacked.

"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. 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.

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.

(ANI)

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