Following the opposition’s demand for a separate discussion on the Pegasus spyware issue in the 2022 budget session at the Parliament, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi said that there is no scope for a separate discussion on the matter as it is currently sub judice.
“We have told the opposition that during the first part of the Budget session we can only discuss the Budget and the presidential address. Therefore, it would not be possible to hold a separate discussion. In any case, the matter is under court’s jurisdiction right now,” said Joshi, while addressing the media on Monday.
The ‘Pegasus project’ was one of the biggest international investigative journalism stories of 2021. In July, it was revealed that the phone numbers of at least 40 Indian journalists, as well as several politicians, activists and lawyers were part of a list of 50,000 mobile numbers across the globe, that were targeted by the Pegasus spyware, developed by a private Israeli firm. The investigation was globally conducted by a group of 16 news organisations including, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Wire.
The list included names of senior journalists, who have compiled investigative reports against the ruling BJP government in India. The Wire’s founder-editors Siddharth Varadarajan and MK Venu, and its regular contributors Rohini Singh and senior columnist Prem Shankar Jha, along with freelance journalist Swati Chaturvedi, former Economics and Political Weekly editor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, and former Indian Express journalist Sushant Singh, were some of the names on the list.
In August, several journalists and politicians, including N Ram, Sashi Kumar, CPI (M) leader and journalist John Brittas, Jagdeep Chokkar, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Rupesh Kumar Singh, SNM Abidi, Narendra Mishra, TMC leader Yashwant Sinha, and the Editor’s Guild of India, filed petitions with the Supreme Court seeking a probe in the matter.
The petitions sought a court-monitored inquiry by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or a judicial scrutiny into the alleged spying of several activists, politicians, journalists and constitutional bodies using the Pegasus spyware.
On August 17, The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Government of India, and the government had later told the court that no additional affidavit would be filed regarding the use of the illegal spyware, citing “national security concerns.”
Subsequently, in October, the apex court ordered the formation of an independent committee to investigate the allegations made against the Union Government.
Now, new controversy has been stirred up in the issue after a New York Times article titled The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon, published last week, claimed that India bought Pegasus spyware from Israel in 2017, as part of a $2 billion defence deal.
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Following this revelation, the Editor’s Guild of India expressed deep concern and wrote to the committee headed by Justice Raveendran, to acknowledge the issue. In the letter, the Guild has demanded an inquiry into the matter and sought responses on the affidavit from the Government of India, the CAG, as well as Secretaries of all possible ministries that “may have been involved with the claimed purchase of the spyware.”
On Monday, several members of opposition parties, like the Congress and CPI, filed a privilege motion against IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, for allegedly misleading the Parliament on the Pegasus issue.
Joshi, with regard to the privilege motion, said that it is not “strong enough” and added, “The matter is sub judice before the Supreme Court. It is not right for anybody to make a comment, not right for me either.”