Speaker meets home, IT, telecom secretaries on not appearing before panel

Taking note of a complaint filed by Congress leader and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT Shashi Tharoor, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is learnt to have met the secretaries of the home, information technology and telecom ministries, sources said on Wednesday.

The three secretaries wrote to Tharoor conveying their unavailability to depose before the panel at its meeting on July 28, in which the committee was expected to take up the Pegasus snooping issue.

A day after the meeting, Tharoor wrote to Birla informing him that the three secretaries were called to depose on “citizens” data security and privacy”.

The meeting was cancelled after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members boycotted it, resulting in a lack of quorum. The BJP MPs had accused Tharoor of using the committee for “forwarding the Congress agenda”.

Tharoor met the speaker on several occasions on the issue of non-appearance of government officials before the standing committee meeting on July 28. Birla was expected to hold an informal meeting of all the panel members but so far, no such meeting has taken place.

The committee is again expected to meet on August 17 to adopt the reports on “Internet Shutdowns in India” and “Media Ethics”.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has been demanding Tharoor”s from the committee for allegedly forwarding his party”s political agenda. PTI