Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Priyanka Chaturvedi on Tuesday said her parliamentary questions related to the alleged use of Pegasus spyware were disallowed.
“My Parliamentary Questions regarding Pegasus & spyware/surveillance - to both IT (information technology) ministry and Home ministry surprisingly haven’t made it, either as starred (Question Hour) or unstarred (written reply) question. Reason: ballot selection. Hail transparency. Okay then,” Chaturvedi tweeted.
This comes a day after the defence ministry on Monday told the Rajya Sabha that it has had no dealings with Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group, which is at the centre of a global controversy over the misuse of its Pegasus spyware.
The Opposition parties have continuously disrupted the functioning of the Parliament over the Pegasus snooping controversy and demanded a discussion on the matter in the House.
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On August 6, Hindustan Times reported that the Centre sought to disallow in the Rajya Sabha a question seeking details from the external affairs ministry on whether the government entered into a contract with NSO Group, stating that “the ongoing issue of Pegasus” is sub-judice after “several PILs have been filed in the Supreme Court.”
The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that the phones of Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers from around the world that were potentially targeted by the NSO Group’s phone hacking software. The list database was first obtained by France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories, which shared the information with the reporting partners. The devices of at least 67 of the numbers were analysed by Amnesty International and of these, 37 had signs of being hacked by Pegasus. Of these 37, 10 were in India. NSO has said its software is sold only to governments.
{{/usCountry}}The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that the phones of Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers from around the world that were potentially targeted by the NSO Group’s phone hacking software. The list database was first obtained by France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories, which shared the information with the reporting partners. The devices of at least 67 of the numbers were analysed by Amnesty International and of these, 37 had signs of being hacked by Pegasus. Of these 37, 10 were in India. NSO has said its software is sold only to governments.
{{/usCountry}}The Indian government has neither confirmed nor denied that it used Pegasus and has ruled out any illegal surveillance.