Ruckus in Parliament, Rajnath Singh to brainstorm with oppn for consensus

The Centre has given Defence Minister Rajnath Singh the responsibility of bringing the leaders of the Opposition parties, who are constantly creating a ruckus in the Parliament over the Pegasus issue, on one platform.

New Delhi:With Opposition parties continuing to create ruckus in the Parliament over the Pegasus spyware issue, the BJP-led Central government has entrusted the responsibility of bringing them on one platform and end the deadlock to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. According to reports, Singh is likely to hold a discussion with the leaders of the Opposition parties on Sunday.

However, even after a constant uproar in the Parliament, the government is not ready to discuss the Pegasus snooping issue under any circumstances. Experts believe that if the Pegasus row is discussed then it might invite lot many questions related to national security. They think that it will not be in the interest of the government to answer the queries on Pegasus software and debate national security issues in public.

Read:|Pegasus spyware 'non-issue'; govt ready to discuss matters related to people: Joshi

Although the IT Minister has already replied on the issue of Pegasus on behalf of the government, the Opposition parties seek a response from the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. In an exclusive interaction with ETV Bharat, political analyst Desh Ratan Nigam said that Opposition parties know that their lame issues will not work with people so they have decided to take up the Pegasus row, albeit baseless, since no written complaint has been filed till date.

"Nobody knows the list of possible targets of snooping. Pegasus itself denied any hacking attempt on its server. Opposition is merely trying to create ruckus in the Parliament which is not in the interest of the country," Nigam told ETV Bharat. "If any government orders phone tapping for its intelligence services or to check terror activities then it is not necessary to disclose about the software being used keeping in mind the national security. On the contrary, if any government makes it public then it becomes easy for the anti-national forces to create disturbances," he informed.

Read:|Pegasus major issue of national security, Centre curtailing people's freedom in democratic set-up: Kharge

"Opposition parties have been asking for the name of the software being used over alleged snooping from a weak ground, akin to their demands in Rafale case. Despite IT Minister asking affected people to submit their phones for testing for hacking, no has has come forward since the BJP government is in power. Neither any authentic list nor authentic names were provided as evidence against the government. According to reports, the names which have surfaced are the potential targets but it was never claimed that those people were spied on," Nigam said.

The Opposition is repeatedly claiming that they have a list of 50,000 people but the list has not been made public yet. I believe it is an 'artificially cooked-up list, he added. On being asked about the Commission of Inquiry set up by the West Bengal government, Nigam said that Mamata Banerjee does not have authority as the states can only make inquiry commission on the issues related to the state but not of national security.

"Issues related to telecommunication and others come under Central list and it would be wrong if the state government forms any inquiry commission on this issue. Following this, the state government has sought court's intervention as it comes under the jurisdiction of the Parliament," he stated.

Read:|Pegasus row: SC to hear next week plea of journalists N Ram, Sashi Kumar seeking inquiry headed by top court judge