After the Opposition raised the issue of Pegasus spyware in the Budget Session of the Parliament, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi has said that there is no scope for discussion of the Pegasus row in the Parliament as the matter was 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 courts jurisdiction right now,” Joshi said after an all-party meeting.

He further added that the government has clarified its stand during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament last year when Information Technology (IT) Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw spoke on the floor of the House.

Opposition demands breach of privilege motion against IT Minister

Several Opposition leaders including Congress, the Left, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have demanded a discussion on the Pegasus row in the Parliament. Some MPs have also written to the Lok Sabha Speaker demanding to file a breach of Privilege Motion against the IT Minister for “deliberately misleading the House on Pegasus issue”.

“They can go ahead. It is up to the speaker to admit it or not but there seems to be no merit in this,” Joshi said.

“The issue is not the procurement of Pegasus but the misuse of it. It’s for the Speaker to decide on a privilege motion, not for the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to decide on that. A privilege motion has been moved before the Speaker of the House,” said Congress MP Manish Tewari.

In July 2021, a leaked list showed names of several Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and over 40 Indian journalists as alleged targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware. Vaishnaw had said that the reports were unsubstantiated and the media report that first published the claims was an ‘attempt to malign the Indian democracy’.