CPI MP Binoy Viswam on Monday submitted a notice for moving a 'Privilege Motion' against Union Information and Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for his statement in Parliament last year on the Pegasus spyware issue which was "misleading the House".
Talking to IANS, Viswam said that he has submitted the notice following the revelation made by the New York Times.
"We were raising this issue in the House in last session and the government is trying to mislead the House to hide the truth. We believe that its our duty and right to raise this issue and using the Parliamentary opportunity to give the Privilege Motion on this matter."
Viswam also said that if the government is a democratic government, they should think about the Joint Parliamentary Committee probe in this matter.
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Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told IANS said that his Congress will hold consultations with other parties to raise this issue in the House.
The New York Times report has claimed that India bought the Pegasus spyware as part of $2 bn military deals with Israel in 2017.
This issue had triggered a major controversy with the Opposition alleging that the government indulged in illegal snooping that amounted to "treason" and a majority of the sittings of Monsoon and Winter sessions were married due to Opposition's protests.
On Sunday, the floor leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also demanded that a 'Privilege Motion' be moved against Vaishnaw for allegedly misleading the house on the Pegasus issue.
Another Congress MP Karti AChidamabaram Aalso said that the government should come clean on this issue.
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"I believe that the NSO Pegasus affair, with regards to India, is riddled with many irregularities. I also believe that the Government must come clean from where the money came from and from which head?
"I also believe that the entire procurement process will be illegal, the deployment of the software, targeted numbers for spying would have been illegal, so I believe that the entire affair is filled with illegality and I am also sure that this will lead to criminal liability," Chidambaram told IANS.
