Congress seeks privilege motion against IT Minister on Pegasus

On the eve of the budget session of Parliament, the opposition Congress has made the move to confront the government about the latest media expose on the Pegasus spyware issue by seeking a privilege motion against information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Congress House leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, on Sunday wrote to Speaker Om Birla, giving notice for the Privilege Motion against the minister by alleging that the latter had "deliberately misled the House" during the monsoon session by stating that the government had never purchased Pegasus.

Citing an NYT report claiming that the Government of India had purchased the spyware from Israel as part of the 2017 defence deal, Chowdhury's letter to the Speaker stated: "In the light of the latest revelation by the New York Times, it appears that the Modi government has misled Parliament and the Supreme Court and lied to the people of India. In view of the above, I demand that a privilege motion may be initiated against the Minister for Information and Technology for deliberately misleading the House on the Pegasus issue."