Referring to parliamentary guidelines, Tharoor contended that the officials had not been excused by him from attending the committee meeting which was held in the wake of the Pegasus revelations. Days after officials from MeitY, MHA, and DoT did not appear for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology's meeting regarding "citizens privacy and security", the committee Chairman Shashi Tharoor has written to the Lok Sabha speaker saying that the act was "in clear contempt of the house." The letter, sent yesterday, also calls it a breach of parliamentary privilege and urges the speaker Om Birla to take cognisance and appropriate action in the matter. MediaNama has reviewed a copy of the letter. Why it matters? The meeting on Wednesday was the first from the IT Committee to discuss, within the ambit of citizen privacy and security, the Pegasus Spyware controversy which has disrupted multiple proceedings in Parliament during the monsoon session and led to widespread protests from opposition members. The Pegasus controversy stems from reports by an international consortium of 17 news organisations that revealed the (potential) use of Israeli firm NSO Group's Pegasus spyware on opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka politicians and key aides, activists, journalists, bureaucrats, ministers, and so on. So far, the government has not categorically denied purchasing or using the software. A timeline of what happened - according to Tharoor According to reports, MHA Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, MeitY Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, and DoT Chairman and Secretary Anshu Prakash were to appear before the committee on…
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