The Opposition on Wednesday protested vehemently as the Lok Sabha Speaker conducted proceedings amid the clamour for a probe into the Pegasus snooping controversy and repeal of the controversial farm laws, completing a week of agitation in the House as the government shows no sign of relenting.
The Opposition MPs, mainly from the Congress, tore papers and threw them towards the Speaker’s chair and the Treasury benches after completion of the Question Hour amid the din.
The Congress MPs appeared to be particularly angry over their leader Rahul Gandhi not being allowed to speak on Pegasus during the post-noon Zero Hour.
After Speaker Om Birla left at noon upon the completion of the Question Hour, BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal was appointed to conduct the proceedings, triggering the first of the day’s multiple adjournments.
For the past seven days since the start of the monsoon session, the Lok Sabha has not been able to transact substantial business because of the Opposition’s sustained protests over the Pegasus phone snooping, the farm laws and other issues.
On Wednesday, however, Speaker Birla went through with the Question Hour amid loud slogan-shouting and waving of placards against the government.
The Speaker did not take any disciplinary action against the Opposition members who hurled balled-up pieces of paper at the Chair. Speaking to reporters later, junior parliamentary affairs minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said “some action would surely be taken”.
The government has been fighting shy of a debate on Pegasus, saying that the information technology minister has already made a statement before Parliament.
The Opposition has been demanding a discussion in the House and a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allegations of snooping on judges, journalists, politicians, activists and others using the Israeli spyware Pegasus.
The government’s uneasiness over Pegasus was evident yet again on Wednesday when BJP parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey submitted a privilege notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to demand his removal as chairman of the parliamentary panel on information technology.
Tharoor has been pressing for the committee to take up the Pegasus snooping case and summon government officials. Dubey and the other BJP members on the panel are desperate to scuttle any such discussion.
The Tharoor-headed panel’s scheduled meeting on Wednesday was postponed due to lack of quorum as BJP members protested and didn’t sign the attendance register. In the 32-member panel, the majority are BJP MPs.
Seeking the Chair’s permission to move a privilege motion against Tharoor, Dubey claimed that while the Congress was not allowing any discussion in the House, it wanted the parliamentary panel to take up the Pegasus issue.
In his notice, Dubey accused Tharoor of selecting the panel’s agenda to suit his “political masters” and demanded that he be removed.
The Chair said the notice had been received and it was being examined by the Speaker. A privilege motion can be moved only if the Speaker finds merit in the notice and refers it to the privilege committee of the House.
