According to the Rajya Sabha’s agenda for the second day of the Monsoon Session on Tuesday, Union electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will speak about the Pegasus hacking controversy.
According to an international investigative consortium, Vaishnaw and another Union minister are among the prominent people who could be targeted by Israeli phone hacking software. On the first day of the monsoon session, the report sparked a political storm.
On Monday, Vaishnaw dismissed reports that India had infiltrated the phones of journalists, activists, opposition leaders, and ministers using the spyware Pegasus. They were a “attempt to malign Indian democracy and its well-established institutions,” he said.
Vaishnaw, speaking in Parliament for the first time, said that the “highly sensational storey” has made several “over the top allegations,” but that there is “no substance behind them.”
“It is not a coincidence that the reports have been published a day before the Monsoon Session of Parliament,” said Vaishnaw, who was just minutes later named as one of the ministers who may have been targeted.
To be sure, as the investigation’s methodology explains, the presence of a phone number does not imply that it was hacked — only that it was of interest. Any involvement by the government has been denied.
A motion to name a member of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language is also expected to be introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Committee examines the advancement of Hindi as a language for official use.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will make statements on supplementary demands, excess grant demands, and the Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, for consideration and passage.
The National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2021, and the Marine Aids to Navigation Bill, 2021, are two other bills that were introduced on Monday.
The Public Accounts Committee, which audits the government’s revenues and expenditures, will also present reports in Parliament.
The Rajya Sabha will begin the day with an obituary reference for Chhattisgarh’s Ramadhar Kashyap.
On Monday, the parliamentary proceedings were repeatedly adjourned due to sloganeering and protests by the opposition.
