The Evening Wrap: CPI(M) MP moves SC seeking court-monitored probe into Pegasus issue

Rajya Sabha member John Brittas has moved the Supreme Court for a court-monitored investigation into allegations of snooping on activists, politicians, journalists and constitutional functionaries using the Israeli spyware, Pegasus. The parliamentarian said the government’s response in the House to the allegations was “evasive”. Brittas, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP, said allegations pointed to a “critical invasion into privacy”. It actually amounted to a “cyber attack” on citizens. He termed Pegasus as a “weapon” used to “hack” into private smartphones to cause a chilling effect on free speech and expression. So far, the MP said the only response from the government was a statement from the Minister for Electronics and Information Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Rajya Sabha that “time-tested processes in our country are well-established to ensure that unauthorised surveillance does not occur”. Brittas asked the court whether the statement meant if the surveillance was authorised by the government. If so, the MP asked, were the procedures under the Indian Telegraph Act, Information Technology (Amendment) Act, Section 92 of Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Telegraph Rules for “lawful interception” followed by the government. “Hence, the government needs to appraise the reasons for the interceptions made to the gadgets of its own Ministers, staff, constitutional authorities, including Election Commissioners and judges, CBI officers, a Supreme Court staffer, activists, scientists and journalists,” Brittas argued. On the other hand, if Pegasus was an unauthorised snooping exercise mounted by a foreign power, it would amount to an act of external aggression. The parliamentarian said the most puzzling factor so far was the government’s lack of a clear answer. “Despite the very serious nature of allegations, the government has not cared to investigate into the allegations involved in the issue but made only a statement that the time-tested processes in our country are well-established to ensure that unauthorised surveillance does not occur. This statement is as empty as making a hope that there will not be any crimes in India because the Indian Penal Code is there,” Brittas, represented by advocate Resmitha R. Chandran, submitted. The MP told the Supreme Court that Pegasus was a “slap in the face of privacy”, declared by the court as a fundamental right inextricably linked to the right to life and dignity. Hacking allegedly the phones of the judiciary and a Supreme Court staffer who accused a former Chief Justice of India of sexual harassment showed a “strong interference with the administration of justice”. “This is unprecedented and shocking,” the parliamentarian said. The interception of the phone of a former Election Commission member shows that “fundamentals of democracy and free and fair elections are also shaken”. The allegation that several Opposition members were snooped on weakens democracy. “The Opposition is an inevitable part of democracy,” the petition said. The allegation that even “top CBI officials” were watched through Pegasus showed that “either the government has no trust upon its own investigating officers or that some external agencies are accessing the highly confidential data of topmost investigating agency. This is a threat to the independence of the central investigating agencies…” Central Ministries owe ₹147 crore to newspapers for ad campaigns The Centre owes more than ₹147 crore to various print media outlets as payment for government advertisements, according to a recent response to a Right to Information (RTI) query made by law student Aniket Gaurav. In fact, there are more than 76,000 outstanding bills for print media campaigns pending with the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the oldest of which dates as far back as 2004. For electronic media, the pending amount was ₹67 crore, while the unpaid bills for outdoor publicity amount to almost ₹18 crore. Gaurav, a first year law student at Meerut University, said he had sent the query as he was concerned about the number of newspapers which were being shut down. “As a reader, I feel that the major reason for any newspaper shutting down would be because of loss of revenue. As government ads constitute a large part of revenue, so I thought I should find out whether the government is paying for its ads on time, and which Ministries have unpaid bills,” he said. “I was shocked to find that there are ads which have not been paid for 17 years.” The RTI response from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting provided data on the outstanding bills that Central Ministries owed to the DAVP, which in turn pays media organisations for running advertising campaigns. The largest pending amounts for print media come from the Defence Ministry, which has 12,271 unpaid bills worth more than ₹16 crore, followed by the Finance Ministry, with 6,668 unpaid bills worth ₹13 crore. The information is updated until June 21, 2021. “The date of the oldest outstanding payment/bill related to ad campaigns pending with DAVP is 04.08.2004,” said the Ministry’s response. With regard to electronic media, the Ministry said a full list of the number of outstanding bills was not readily available, nor were records maintained regarding the date of the bills. However, the information available regarding pending payments to electronic media indicated that more than ₹67 crore is yet to be paid to TV channels, with the Department of Road Transport and Highways responsible for the largest unpaid bills. For context, the total pending amount of ₹147 crore is higher than the ₹118 crore “commitment” made by the government to all newspapers during 2020-21, as well as the ₹65 crore actually paid out as “expenditure” for print ad campaigns during the same period, according to data available on the DAVP website. Regional parties should form national front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls: Sukhbir Singh Badal Regional parties should come together and form a national front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday and asserted that his party’s story with the saffron party was over. Underlining that issues of farmers are at the core of the SAD ideology, Badal said his party can never compromise on these and, therefore, severed its decades-old alliance with the BJP and moved out of the government at the Centre over the three contentious farm laws. “SAD is a farmers’ party and their issues are the core of our ideology. Whatever may happen and whatever cost we may have to pay, we wouldn’t let these laws be implemented in Punjab,” Badal told PTI in an interview. In September last year, Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur quit as Union minister in protest against the legislations. The protesting farmers claim these laws will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations. Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides. Talking about the SAD's new alliance with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Badal said the alliance between the two parties is permanent and that the Akali Dal’s story with the BJP was over. On the party’s future course of action, Badal said that the SAD is talking to various regional parties so that they all can come on one platform before the 2024 general elections. “There is a need for regional forces to get together. Regional forces are more connected to the ground and have better understanding of the people. We have been talking to various parties. Regional parties should come together and form a front before the 2024 general elections. And I am sure before 2024 this front will emerge as very strong force,” he said. Badal further said it would be a second front rather than a third front as the main opposition Congress is no more a pan-India party. The BJP will be the new front’s main target. In the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab, Badal said farm laws will be the main issue for the Akali Dal and “if the party is voted to power, it will provide a government job to a family member of all those farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protest against the laws.” In addition, the government will provide free education to the children of the deceased farmers and pension to the parents of those who died young, Badal said. On a question about reports of alleged snooping on politicians, activists and journalists using Pegasus spyware, Badal termed it an attack on democracy and demanded establishment of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by an opposition MP to probe the matter. “This entire snooping episode is an attack on the Constitution, democracy and rights of the people. It is completely unethical and a JPC should be formed headed by an opposition MP to investigate it,” Badal said. Amid talk of Yediyurappa’s exit, Nadda says no leadership crisis in Karnataka Amid speculation about a change of guard in Karnataka, BJP president J.P. Nadda on July 25 ruled out any leadership crisis in the southern State and said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has done good work. Talking to reporters at the end of his two-day Goa visit, Nadda also said that the BJP would fight the Assembly elections in Goa due early next year under the leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, but added that a formal decision about it would be taken by the party’s parliamentary board. On Karnataka, he said, “Yediyurappa has done good work. Karnataka is doing well. Yediyurappa is taking care of the things in his own way.” When asked if there is a leadership crisis in the southern state, Nadda said, “That is what you feel. We don’t feel so.” Nadda’s remarks assume significance as they came hours after the Karnataka CM said he will take an appropriate decision, once he receives directions from the BJP high command this evening, regarding his continuation in the post. “By evening once it comes, you will also get to know about it, once it comes I will take an appropriate decision,” Yediyurappa had said in Belagavi in response to a question whether the directions from the party high command in Delhi were expected today. Rahul Gandhi questions pace of Covid-19 vaccination On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi questioned the pace of Covid-19 vaccination. “Had you understood the country's ‘Mann ki Baat’, such would not have been the state of vaccinations,” Gandhi tweeted on Sunday, with the the hashtag “WhereAreVaccines”. The Congress leader also posted a video highlighting the slow rate of vaccination, and media reports on people not being able to get vaccines across the country. A graph highlighted that the required vaccination rate is 93 lakh per day but the actual average vaccinations per day in the last seven days is 36 lakh per day, a daily shortfall of 56 lakh a day. It also highlighted that actual vaccinations in the previous 24 hours on July 24 was 23 lakh, a shortfall of almost 70 lakh per day. On Friday, the Congress leader had also asked a written question in Parliament on whether the government would be able to vaccinate all adult Indians by December 2021. The government replied that it expected to inoculate Indians above 18 of years age by December even though there could be no fixed timeline. A day later, Gandhi tweeted, “People’s lives on the line. GOI admits no timeline. Classic case of missing spine#WhereAreVaccines.” Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,14,03,342 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,20,895. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 25 JULY 2021 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Pegasus issue: Rajya Sabha MP moves SC seeking court-monitored probe Rajya Sabha member John Brittas has [moved the Supreme Court for a court-monitored investigation]( into [allegations of snooping]( on activists, politicians, journalists and constitutional functionaries using the Israeli spyware, Pegasus. The parliamentarian said the government’s response in the House to the allegations was “evasive”. Brittas, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP, said allegations pointed to a “critical invasion into privacy”. It actually amounted to a “cyber attack” on citizens. He termed Pegasus as a “weapon” used to “hack” into private smartphones to cause a chilling effect on free speech and expression. So far, the MP said the only response from the government was a statement from the Minister for Electronics and Information Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Rajya Sabha that “time-tested processes in our country are well-established to ensure that unauthorised surveillance does not occur”. Brittas asked the court whether the statement meant if the surveillance was authorised by the government. If so, the MP asked, were the procedures under the Indian Telegraph Act, Information Technology (Amendment) Act, Section 92 of Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Telegraph Rules for “lawful interception” followed by the government. [This studio photographic illustration on display in Paris on July 21, 2021 shows a smartphone with the website of Israel’s NSO Group, which features the Pegasus spyware.]  “Hence, the government needs to appraise the reasons for the interceptions made to the gadgets of its own Ministers, staff, constitutional authorities, including Election Commissioners and judges, CBI officers, a Supreme Court staffer, activists, scientists and journalists,” Brittas argued. On the other hand, if Pegasus was an unauthorised snooping exercise mounted by a foreign power, it would amount to an act of external aggression. The parliamentarian said the most puzzling factor so far was the government’s lack of a clear answer. “Despite the very serious nature of allegations, the government has not cared to investigate into the allegations involved in the issue but made only a statement that the time-tested processes in our country are well-established to ensure that unauthorised surveillance does not occur. This statement is as empty as making a hope that there will not be any crimes in India because the Indian Penal Code is there,” Brittas, represented by advocate Resmitha R. Chandran, submitted. The MP told the Supreme Court that Pegasus was a “slap in the face of privacy”, declared by the court as a fundamental right inextricably linked to the right to life and dignity. Hacking allegedly the phones of the judiciary and a Supreme Court staffer who accused a former Chief Justice of India of sexual harassment showed a “strong interference with the administration of justice”. “This is unprecedented and shocking,” the parliamentarian said. The interception of the phone of a former Election Commission member shows that “fundamentals of democracy and free and fair elections are also shaken”. The allegation that several Opposition members were snooped on weakens democracy. “The Opposition is an inevitable part of democracy,” the petition said. The allegation that even “top CBI officials” were watched through Pegasus showed that “either the government has no trust upon its own investigating officers or that some external agencies are accessing the highly confidential data of topmost investigating agency. This is a threat to the independence of the central investigating agencies…” [underlineimg] Central Ministries owe ₹147 crore to newspapers for ad campaigns The [Centre owes more than ₹147 crore to various print media outlets]( as payment for government advertisements, according to a recent response to a Right to Information (RTI) query made by law student Aniket Gaurav. In fact, there are more than 76,000 outstanding bills for print media campaigns pending with the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the oldest of which dates as far back as 2004. For electronic media, the pending amount was ₹67 crore, while the unpaid bills for outdoor publicity amount to almost ₹18 crore. Gaurav, a first year law student at Meerut University, said he had sent the query as he was concerned about the number of newspapers which were being shut down. “As a reader, I feel that the major reason for any newspaper shutting down would be because of loss of revenue. As government ads constitute a large part of revenue, so I thought I should find out whether the government is paying for its ads on time, and which Ministries have unpaid bills,” he said. “I was shocked to find that there are ads which have not been paid for 17 years.” The RTI response from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting provided data on the outstanding bills that Central Ministries owed to the DAVP, which in turn pays media organisations for running advertising campaigns. The largest pending amounts for print media come from the Defence Ministry, which has 12,271 unpaid bills worth more than ₹16 crore, followed by the Finance Ministry, with 6,668 unpaid bills worth ₹13 crore. The information is updated until June 21, 2021. “The date of the oldest outstanding payment/bill related to ad campaigns pending with DAVP is 04.08.2004,” said the Ministry’s response. With regard to electronic media, the Ministry said a full list of the number of outstanding bills was not readily available, nor were records maintained regarding the date of the bills. However, the information available regarding pending payments to electronic media indicated that more than ₹67 crore is yet to be paid to TV channels, with the Department of Road Transport and Highways responsible for the largest unpaid bills. For context, the total pending amount of ₹147 crore is higher than the ₹118 crore “commitment” made by the government to all newspapers during 2020-21, as well as the ₹65 crore actually paid out as “expenditure” for print ad campaigns during the same period, according to data available on the DAVP website. [underlineimg] Regional parties should form national front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls: Sukhbir Singh Badal Regional parties should come together and form a national front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, [Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said]( on Sunday and asserted that his party’s story with the saffron party was over. Underlining that issues of farmers are at the core of the SAD ideology, Badal said his party can never compromise on these and, therefore, severed its decades-old alliance with the BJP and moved out of the government at the Centre over the three contentious farm laws. “SAD is a farmers’ party and their issues are the core of our ideology. Whatever may happen and whatever cost we may have to pay, we wouldn’t let these laws be implemented in Punjab,” Badal told PTI in an interview. In September last year, Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur quit as Union minister in protest against the legislations. The protesting farmers claim these laws will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations. Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides. Talking about the SAD's new alliance with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Badal said the alliance between the two parties is permanent and that the Akali Dal’s story with the BJP was over. On the party’s future course of action, Badal said that the SAD is talking to various regional parties so that they all can come on one platform before the 2024 general elections. “There is a need for regional forces to get together. Regional forces are more connected to the ground and have better understanding of the people. We have been talking to various parties. Regional parties should come together and form a front before the 2024 general elections. And I am sure before 2024 this front will emerge as very strong force,” he said. Badal further said it would be a second front rather than a third front as the main opposition Congress is no more a pan-India party. The BJP will be the new front’s main target. In the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab, Badal said farm laws will be the main issue for the Akali Dal and “if the party is voted to power, it will provide a government job to a family member of all those farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protest against the laws.” In addition, the government will provide free education to the children of the deceased farmers and pension to the parents of those who died young, Badal said. On a question about reports of alleged snooping on politicians, activists and journalists using Pegasus spyware, Badal termed it an attack on democracy and demanded establishment of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by an opposition MP to probe the matter. “This entire snooping episode is an attack on the Constitution, democracy and rights of the people. It is completely unethical and a JPC should be formed headed by an opposition MP to investigate it,” Badal said. [underlineimg] Amid talk of Yediyurappa’s exit, Nadda says no leadership crisis in Karnataka Amid speculation about a change of guard in Karnataka, BJP president J.P. Nadda on July 25 [ruled out any leadership crisis in the southern State]( and said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has done good work. Talking to reporters at the end of his two-day Goa visit, Nadda also said that the BJP would fight the Assembly elections in Goa due early next year under the leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, but added that a formal decision about it would be taken by the party’s parliamentary board. [Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa speaks to an inmate of a flood relief centre in Sankeshwar in Belaglavi on July 25, 2021.]  On Karnataka, he said, “Yediyurappa has done good work. Karnataka is doing well. Yediyurappa is taking care of the things in his own way.” When asked if there is a leadership crisis in the southern state, Nadda said, “That is what you feel. We don’t feel so.” Nadda’s remarks assume significance as they came hours after the Karnataka CM said he will take an appropriate decision, once he receives directions from the BJP high command this evening, regarding his continuation in the post. “By evening once it comes, you will also get to know about it, once it comes I will take an appropriate decision,” Yediyurappa had said in Belagavi in response to a question whether the directions from the party high command in Delhi were expected today. [underlineimg] Rahul Gandhi questions pace of Covid-19 vaccination On a day when Prime Minister [Narendra Modi delivered his monthly radio broadcast]( Mann Ki Baat, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi [questioned the pace of Covid-19 vaccination](. “Had you understood the country's ‘Mann ki Baat’, such would not have been the state of vaccinations,” Gandhi tweeted on Sunday, with the the hashtag “WhereAreVaccines”. The Congress leader also posted a video highlighting the slow rate of vaccination, and media reports on people not being able to get vaccines across the country. A graph highlighted that the required vaccination rate is 93 lakh per day but the actual average vaccinations per day in the last seven days is 36 lakh per day, a daily shortfall of 56 lakh a day. It also highlighted that actual vaccinations in the previous 24 hours on July 24 was 23 lakh, a shortfall of almost 70 lakh per day. On Friday, the Congress leader had also asked a written question in Parliament on whether the government would be able to vaccinate all adult Indians by December 2021. The government replied that it expected to inoculate Indians above 18 of years age by December even though there could be no fixed timeline. A day later, Gandhi tweeted, “People’s lives on the line. GOI admits no timeline. Classic case of missing spine#WhereAreVaccines.” [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 3,14,03,342 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,20,895. [underlineimg] Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. Today's Top Picks [[China’s wolf warrior approach is here to stay, says writer Peter Martin] China’s wolf warrior approach is here to stay, says writer Peter Martin]( [[Telangana’s Ramappa temple inscribed as a World Heritage Site] Telangana’s Ramappa temple inscribed as a World Heritage Site]( [[Australia avoids UNESCO downgrade of Great Barrier Reef] Australia avoids UNESCO downgrade of Great Barrier Reef]( [[How a squirrel’s identity crisis sparked off a scientific quest in Kerala] How a squirrel’s identity crisis sparked off a scientific quest in Kerala]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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