Monsoon Session: LS adjourned till 2 pm amid Opposition uproar

The Lok Sabha was on Thursday adjourned till 2 pm as Opposition Parliamentarians continued to create ruckus in the House over various issues.

Earlier in the day, Congress MP Manish Tewari gave adjournment motion notice in the Lower House over the 'Pegasus Project' issue.

Tewari in his notice said, "Reports have pointed out that the Government of India has procured the surveillance tool Pegasus developed by Israeli company NSO Group for surveillance of Journalists, Civil Society Activists, Politicians and Supreme Court Judges."

He further stated that since the NSO group's policy is that clients are confined to "vetted governments" only it suggests that the spyware was used by the Government of India and not any other private body.

He further stated that reputed agencies like Citizen Lab have found traces of spyware on some of the devices that were attacked.

"It should be noted that this kind of surveillance classifies as hacking, which is what spyware does and it would very much qualify as "unauthorised interception" or hacking as per Information Technology Act, 2000," said the Congress MP in the adjournment motion notice.

Tewari said that the government has not categorically denied that Pegasus has been used officially, adding that the matter is of grave concern and therefore being raised.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Manickam Tagore moved adjournment motion notice to discuss Pegasus issue in presence of Prime Minister or Home Minister in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

"I hereby give notice of my intention to ask for leave to move a motion for the adjournment of the business of the house for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent importance. namely:- "Need to suspend the business of the day to have a discussion in the presence of the Prime Minister or Home Minister the alleged role of the Government towards utilizing Israeli Pegasus spyware as the weapon against Indian opposition leaders, Chief Justice of India, Election Commissioner of India, CBI Director, women journalists and MPs of BJP's," Congress leader said in his notice.

The business of both the Houses of the Parliament remained majorly disrupted due to the continuous ruckus created by the Opposition over the issues including farmers' protest, Pegasus spyware, COVID-19 and inflation.

The Monsoon Session commenced on July 19 and is scheduled to continue till August 13.