Parliamentary panel meeting to question govt officials on Pegasus postponed due to lack of quorum

A parliamentary panel meeting that was set to question government officials on Wednesday on the Pegasus spyware issue was postponed due to lack of quorum.

A number of members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology, chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, sat in Parliament to discuss 'Citizens' safety and date protection'.

However, BJP members of the panel who were present in the meeting room didn't sign the attendance register in protest leading to a lack of quorum required for holding the meeting.

Even though the meeting did not take place, the gathering of BJP and opposition party members led to a drama as the ruling party MP Nishikant Dubey alleged that Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has called him a ''Bihari Gunda''.

Dubey, in a tweet tagging TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleged that Moitra's comments show her party's attitude towards the people of Bihar and the Hindi-speaking parts of the country.

Moitra denied the charge saying Dubey was not even present in the meeting.

''Am a bit amused by charges of name-calling. IT meeting did not happen because no quorum -- members did not attend. How can I call someone name who was not even present!! Check attendance sheet!'' the TMC MP tweeted.

The panel's chair Tharoor had said the panel members will question officials from the Information and Technology Ministry and the Home Ministry who will depose before it on the Pegasus issue.

BJP members opposed this alleging that when the Congress party is not allowing discussion on this issue in Parliament then it can't be discussed in the committee meeting.

''BJP members come to the IT Committee and refuse to sign the attendance register to deny a quorum. Further, all the witnesses called from MiEIT and MHA wrote in excuses and didn't appear as called to testify. It's very clear that Pegasus is a no go area for this government,'' the Congress' Karti Chidambaram, who is a member of the panel, said on Twitter.

Tharoor on Tuesday said the parliamentary panel on information technology will question government officials on allegations relating to suspected phone tapping of politicians, journalists and others using Pegasus spyware, while asserting that it was the ''most important issue'' for many members.

Since the beginning of the monsoon session on July 19, both Houses have seen repeated disruptions as opposition parties have been demanding a Supreme Court-monitored judicial probe in this matter.

The 32-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, for which the listed agenda was -- Citizens' data security and privacy -- according to a notification by Lok Sabha Secretariat.

The panel, which has the maximum members from the ruling BJP, had summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for surveillance using Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus spyware. Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers -- Prahlad Singh Patel and Railways and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, businessman Anil Ambani, a former CBI chief, and at least 40 journalists are on the list on the leaked database of NSO. It is, however, not established that all the phones were hacked.