The Evening Wrap: Parliamentary panel not allowed to discuss Pegasus

BJP members, on the second consecutive day, staged a walkout, refusing to sign the attendance register, forcing the meeting to be cancelled in the absence of quorum. [logo] The Evening Wrap 28 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]( Parliamentary panel not allowed to discuss Pegasus In a complete washout, the Standing Committee on Information Technology headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor [could not deliberate on “Citizens’ Data Security and Privacy,”]( as none of the officials of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MEITy) and the Department of Telecom came for the meeting, citing various reasons for their absence. A discussion on data security and privacy would have entailed questions on the alleged Pegasus cyberattack on more than 300 persons in India. The BJP members, on the second consecutive day, staged a walkout, refusing to sign the attendance register, forcing the meeting to be cancelled in the absence of quorum. [ ]  “@BJP4India members come to the IT Committee & refuse to sign the attendance register to deny a quorum. Further all the witnesses called from MEITY & MHA wrote in excuses & didn’t appear as called to testify. It’s very clear that #Pegasus is a no go area for this government,” one of the members and Congress MP Karti Chidambaram tweeted. The BJP, he said, wants to expunge Pegasus from any debate, scrutiny or enquiry. “What are they so afraid of?” Sources said that right at the very beginning, the BJP members started protesting. They accused Tharoor of running the “Congress agenda” and not discussing the subject of meetings with the members before finalising it. This led to a sharp exchange of words between the Opposition and BJP members. BJP’s Nishikant Dubey complained that TMC’s Mahua Moitra called him “Bihari goonda”, or hoodlum. Addressing Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Dubey, in a tweet in Hindi, said that in his 13 years as a parliamentarian for the first time he was abused in a meeting of a standing committee. “TMC MP Mahua Moitra thrice called me a “Bihari goonda”,” he said. He also accused Tharoor of having taken a “contract to end the Parliamentary tradition of standing committees.” Earlier in the day, Dubey gave a notice to move a privilege motion against Tharoor. In the notice, he said the agenda of the meeting was not discussed with the members. He also alleged that even before it was circulated among the members, Tharoor announced it to the media. In response to this, Moitra said in a tweet that the privilege motion showed the BJP’s desperation to dodge any probe into Pegasus. “Nishikant Dubey files privilege motion against @ShashiTharoor just to prevent IT Committee from grilling MHA on Pegasus. I moved privilege motion against IT Minister on 23/7 for lying in house. How has that not been taken up?” she stated. On Tuesday, at a meeting of the panel to deliberate on the draft Cinematograph Bill 2021, the BJP members staged a walkout alleging the same issues. [underlineimg] Amid din, Parliament clears important bills without debate Both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday [cleared important bills without debate]( amid continuing protests by Opposition members on the Pegasus snooping issue and the three contentious farm laws, against which farmers’ groups have been protesting for months. The Lok Sabha, which witnessed unruly behaviour in the form of tearing of papers and throwing them towards the Speaker’s Chair and the treasury benches, saw the passage of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021, as also the first batch of the Supplementary Demand for Grants, and the Appropriations Bill, numbers 3 and 4, without debate and by a voice vote. Although Speaker Om Birla managed to hold Question Hour even amidst the din, the first time in the current session, as soon as Rajendra Agarwal replaced him in the Chair, the protests got louder and Opposition members such as Gurjeet Aujala, T.N. Prathapan and Hibi Eden from the Congress as well as some others tore up papers and threw them in the air. Interestingly, Congress member Jasbir Singh Gill raised the slogan, “Khela Hobe” (game on) used by the Trinamool Congress during the recently concluded Assembly polls in West Bengal. The House was adjourned several times before legislative business was conducted amid the din and adjourned for the day. In the Rajya Sabha too, the important Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021 was passed without debate and the House adjourned for the day before 3 p.m. [underlineimg] Political fortunes can change overnight, says Mamata Banerjee There have been many examples in the past when political fortunes changed overnight, [West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said]( adding that if Opposition parties seriously worked together, “six months is enough”. Banerjee was addressing a select gathering of journalists in Delhi. She is here on a five-day tour, her first visit since winning the West Bengal Assembly polls for a third time. “Now we want to see ‘sacche din’ (days of truth). For long we have endured the ‘achhe din’ (the BJP’s slogan),” Banerjee said. “It is going to be Narendra Modi versus the nation,” she added. [West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee meets Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on July 28, 2021. Photo: All India Congress Committee via PTI]  Banerjee said, “Khela hobe (the game is on; the Trinamool Congress slogan for the West Bengal election) will ring through the nation.” She said that there had been many precedents in Indian democracy when popular leaders lost their mandate overnight. “What happened in 1977? Indira Gandhi was voted out. Atal Behari Vajpayee lost his popularity within a year. There are many such precedents in our democracy,” she said. “If you [the Opposition] are serious, all you need is six months,” she added. She evaded questions on the contours of such a unified Opposition and who would lead it. “I am not a political astrologer. It depends on the situation. I have no problem if someone else leads,” she said. At the same time, she asserted that talks had to begin after the Parliament’s Monsoon Session. She also refused to answer questions on the role the Congress would play in a unified Opposition. “Congress president Sonia Gandhi too wants to have an united Opposition,” Banerjee said. The TMC leader met Gandhi in the evening. So far, Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress have maintained a distance from the Opposition bloc in Parliament. Answering a question on whether talks were on to bring them on board, Banerjee said, “I maintain good relations with both Mr. Patnaik and Mr. Reddy. Today, they may not be with us but who can say that this will not change tomorrow.” “When a political storm blows, it’s very difficult to contain,” she added. At the same time, Banerjee dodged questions on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who returned to the National Democratic Alliance in 2017, and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, saying it was a question for them to answer. “If the Opposition parties in U.P. want to stop the BJP, then they will have to work together,” she said. “I want to help all regional and national parties bell the cat,” Banerjee added, in an apparent reference to the BJP. “If the leaders come together, workers too shall unite.” Quoting the example of Uttar Pradesh, which will go to polls early next year, she asked if people could forget the visuals of bodies floating in the Ganga, or instances when “family members of Covid-19 victims had to run around for cremation”. She asked, “Those who couldn’t give a proper funeral to their loved ones, can they vote for Modi? They may have been his supporters yesterday, but will they remain his supporters today?” Banerjee said it was wrong to term the Pegasus malware issue as esoteric “since everyone has a mobile phone today”. West Bengal is the first State to institute an enquiry into the Pegasus cyber attack. “Why is the government not taking suo motu action? They can send CBI and ED for raids everywhere, then why not for this?” she asked. “The Pegasus cyber attack is not only about privacy, it’s about life and property, too. In a democracy, the government has to respond. And this situation is more serious than even the Emergency,” Banerjee said. She refused to reply to questions over speculation that her political strategist Prashant Kishor was joining the Congress, saying he was capable of fielding such questions himself. “He [Mr. Kishor] has freedom of choice to decide where to go and where to work,” Banerjee said. [underlineimg] Rahul rejects govt charges on Parliament disruption, says Opposition united on Pegasus Congress leader [Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said]( the Opposition was united in demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row in Parliament in the presence of the prime minister or the home minister. He rejected the government’s charges over the disruption of Parliament and said the Opposition was only fulfilling its responsibility. He also attacked the government over the Pegasus snooping row, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit of “hitting the soul of India's democracy”. The voice of Opposition was being suppressed in Parliament, he alleged. “We are only asking if the government bought Pegasus and snooped upon Indians. We are not disturbing Parliament, we are only fulfilling our responsibility,” he said. He also said the Pegasus row “for us is an issue of nationalism, treason. This is not a matter of privacy. It is an anti-national work.” He said the Opposition was united over the issue. The government has been rejecting all Opposition charges over the issue. In the Parliament, various members voiced their concern. RJD MP Manoj Jha and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that the IT Minister himself was snooped upon. “The issue is not about Information Technology but national security and that’s why the Home Minister has to sit through the discussion,” they said. DMK MP T.R. Baalu said, “The government is giving an impression that Opposition who are gathered are opposed to any discussion. It is not so. Every day we are giving notices. The government doesn’t want to discuss. Democracy is in peril. Pegasus is not only affecting politicians and the judiciary but even you.” [underlineimg] Legislators indulging in vandalism cannot claim immunity, says SC The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that [legislators who indulge in vandalism and general mayhem cannot claim parliamentary privilege and immunity]( from criminal prosecution, as it dismissed appeals by the Kerala government and the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) to withdraw a criminal case against their leaders who destroyed public property and disrupted a Budget speech on the State Assembly floor in 2015. “Parliamentary privileges and immunities are not ‘gateways’ for legislators to claim exception from the law of the land, especially criminal law,” a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah observed in a judgment. Vandalism on the Assembly floor could not be equated with the right to protest by Opposition legislators. Destruction of public property could not be equated with the exercise of freedom of speech. Legislators should act within the parameters of the public trust imposed on them to do their duty. They had taken office swearing true allegiance to the Constitution. They had to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India and had to perform the duty imposed on them by the people who elected them, it said. Engaging in acts of violence inside the Assembly could hardly be in the “larger public interest” or be considered as “legitimate” protests, as claimed by the State government and the accused leaders, the Supreme Court noted. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, was justified in declining the Public Prosecutor's application to withdraw the criminal case against the accused LDF leaders, one of them being the current State Education Minister, V. Sivankutty. The Supreme Court agreed with the Magistrate’s view that the application for withdrawal was not made in good faith. Criminal law must take its normal course, the court ordered. The televised images from the day of the incident show legislators coming to blows on the House floor and hurling chairs, computers and other public property soon after Finance Minister K.M. Mani began his budget speech during the UDF government’s tenure. The MLAs are facing charges of criminal trespass, mischief and destruction of public property. “MLAs only have parliamentary privileges and immunities essential for doing their duty,” Justice Chandrachud responded. The court said breaking chairs and indulging in destruction of public property on the Assembly floor could not be said to be an ‘essential function’. “MLAs do not stand above the general application of law,” Justice Chandrachud observed in the judgment. [underlineimg] Indian democracy is powered by its freethinking citizens: Blinken [Democratic values and free citizenry define India, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken]( here on Wednesday. At a press conference after holding bilateral talks, Secretary Blinken said the United States views India through the prism of common democratic values and that there are challenges that can be ‘ugly’ that need to be dealt with through “corrective mechanisms”. Blinken also warned the Taliban not to attack civil liberties of the Afghan people. “Our shared values and democratic traditions were part of our conversation. The relationship is so strong because it is a relationship between two democracies. Americans admire Indians’ commitment to rights, democracy and pluralism. Indian democracy is powered by its freethinking citizens. I approach this with humility. U.S. has challenges too. The search is for a more perfect union which means we are not perfect. Sometimes, the challenges can be painful, even ugly,” said Blinken to a question about ‘backsliding’ of democratic values in India. Blinken pointed at the free press and independent judiciary as part of the “corrective mechanism” that can repair challenges to democracy. The issue of the condition of human rights and apparent democratic erosion has been a prominent part of bilateral conversation at the official level since the Biden administration arrived in January. The State Department had announced that Blinken would raise the issue during his visit here, especially in the context of shrinking of democratic space and pressure on the free media. [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 3,15,10,911 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,22,255. [underlineimg] Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.  Today's Top Picks [[Assam, Mizoram agree to deployment of central police forces in disturbed areas along border and NH-306] Assam, Mizoram agree to deployment of central police forces in disturbed areas along border and NH-306]( [[Explainer | Is RBI planning a digital currency for India?] Explainer | Is RBI planning a digital currency for India?]( [[Instagram to restrict some ads from reaching minors] Instagram to restrict some ads from reaching minors]( [[Contactless wireless-charging facility being developed for EVs] Contactless wireless-charging facility being developed for EVs]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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