Hopeful IT panel will take up Pegasus; officials may have been instructed to skip last meet: Sashi Tharoor

NEW DELHI: Chairman of the parliamentary panel on information technology Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said members “disrupted” the committee’s meeting on July 28 as they did not want the Pegasus allegations to be discussed and the officials who were to testify “appear to have been instructed not to attend”, but expressed hope the snooping issue would be taken up by the panel going forward.

Tharoor, who has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take action over ministry officials not attending the panel meet, also asserted that the actions of the three officials making “last-minute excuses” to skip the meeting were a “grievous assault” on such panels’ prerogatives to summon witnesses.