Pegasus row: Officials from 3 ministries skip IT panel meet; Shashi Tharoor writes to Lok Sabha speaker alleging contempt

Lok Sabha MP and Chairperson of Standing Committee on Information Technology Shashi Tharoor yesterday took strong exception to the last-minute refusal by officials of three ministries to attend a meeting related to the Pegasus snooping issue called by the panel. Tharoor wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to take cognisance of the matter while terming the officials’ conduct a breach of Parliamentary privilege and contempt of the House.

The Parliamentary Panel had called representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Home Affairs, and Department of Telecommunication to discuss Citizens’ Data Security and Privacy. While the meeting did not happen due to a lack of quorum as the 10 BJP MPs did not sign the attendance register, Tharoor chose to take up the officials’ conduct with the Speaker.