The BJP members on Tuesday boycotted the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, saying that the agenda of the meeting should not be made public.
The Committee is likely to question top Government officials, including from the Home Ministry, on allegations related to phone tapping of many using Pegasus spyware on Wednesday. There are 32-members in the committee.
It has the maximum members from the ruling BJP.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said the agenda of the meeting should be given to the members in advance, but was not given and the meeting was held at a time when both the Houses are in Session. The agenda of the meeting was to review of the functioning of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in the context of the draft Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
“As per rules, confidentiality should be maintained. Agenda became public before the meeting. The agenda should be fixed with the consent of committee members. We’ve boycotted the meet,” said BJP MP Zafar Islam. The face-off the BJP MPs and the Committee chairman is not new as the two sides have had several run-ins in the past over Facebook and Twitter issue and 4G connection in Jammu & Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the 32-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, for which the listed agenda is ‘’Citizens’ data security and privacy’’, according to a notification issued by Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Officials of the Ministry of Information Technology, Home and Communications have been summoned to the meeting. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 4 pm. Both the houses of the Parliament have not been allowed to function for the six consecutive days on Tuesday as the government and the opposition locked horns on the issue of Pegasus snooping.
Tharoor said the subject of Citizens Data Privacy and Security is an approved agenda item of the committee and it was under this item that we had earlier discussed the Pegasus issue in November-December last year. “So it’s a continuing issue. There would be other questions as well, as this is not necessarily the only issue. But, for many of us in the committee this is perhaps the most important issue,” Tharoor added.