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House panels to take up privacy breach issue
The standing committee on home affairs, led by Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma, and the standing committee on information technology, headed by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, will examine the case.
The Congress announced on Sunday that two parliamentary panels, headed by its leaders, will take up the Pegasus hacking attack and seek responses from government officials on the issue.
The standing committee on home affairs, led by Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma, and the standing committee on information technology, headed by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, will examine the case.
Terming the hacking episode as worrisome, Sharma said the issue will be taken up at the panel’s next meeting, scheduled for November 15.
“In that meeting this issue will also be discussed and we will seek details from the secretary,” news agency PTI quoted Congress leader Sharma as saying.
Tharoor said the panel on information technology would share its concerns with the government.
“In any case cybersecurity is a major issue on our agenda and we are definitely going to take this up under that rubric. And we will be seeking clarifications from the government,” he said.
He also said that India should not become a “surveillance state” like China, adding that India should be wary of its democratic ideals coming under the threat of disruptive technology.
The Home Secretary is scheduled to brief the panel on home affairs on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the next meeting. “In that meeting this issue will also be discussed and we will seek details from the secretary,” Sharma said.
