Pegasus fallout: IT panel meet put off after BJP MPs boycott, preventing quorum

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 28

The Pegasus snooping controversy cast its shadow inside and outside Parliament on Wednesday with the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology scheduled to discuss the spying matter put off in the absence of the quorum after 14 BJP MPs of the 32-member panel refused to sign the attendance register.

The BJP MPs led by Jharkhand’s Nishikant Dubey earlier today moved a notice of privilege against Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, who heads the IT panel, and expressed “no confidence in him”, urging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to remove Tharoor.

All 14 BJP members of the IT Panel signed the notice of breach of privilege Dubey submitted to the Speaker today.

Dubey later said that Tharoor had violated all norms of parliamentary committee discipline by publicly talking about the agenda to be taken up by the panel even before the said agenda had been taken up and seen by the committee members.

“Needless to say the gentleman has not only disrobed the democratic functioning of an august committee but also exhibited extreme high level of sycophancy towards his political masters who still have a false notion of ruling our country and its democratic institutions by destroying them bit by bit and also creating a ruckus through their cronies like the present chairperson of the Information and Technology Committee.”

Tharoor recently wrote on Twitter and gave media statements saying Pegasus row would be taken up in the IT committee on priority. Dubey and other BJP MPs are arguing that Tharoor violated committee norms by speaking on record about committee proceedings which are meant to be secret.

“Shashi Tharoor himself decides the agenda of the sitting of the committee and then breaks the news not with members of the committee but with the media and his Twitter handle.”

Later today, Dubey and other BJP MPs went for the 4 pm meeting of the committee but returned without signing the attendance register and ensuring there was no quorum to hold the meeting.

Also, officials of the Ministry of IT and Electronics that were summoned by the panel did not turn up due to various reasons.

The BJP has cited “no confidence in Tharoor” demanding his removal.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, member of the panel, said, “BJP MPs came to the IT committee and refused to sign the attendance register to deny a quorum, Further, all the witnesses called from Ministry of IT and Electronics and Home Ministry wrote in execuses and did not appear as called to testify. It is very clear that Pegasus is a no go area for this government.”