No Pegasus amendment admitted in Rajya Sabha but 8 MPs get nod in Lok Sabha

None of the amendments to the President's Address on Pegasus issue submitted by Opposition MPs were admitted for tabling in Rajya Sabha while eight MPs in Lok Sabha have got permission for tabling it.

Lok Sabha has admitted a total of 232 amendments from 28 MPs while the Rajya Sabha has admitted 99 amendments from 14 MPs. The dominating themes of amendments were Covid-19 and related issues, unemployment, farmers, fuel prices and India-China border row.

In Rajya Sabha, amendments related to farmers were the highest at 13 followed by unemployment (11), price rise (10) and Covid-19 (9).

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However, at least two MPs -- Congress' KC Venugopal and CPI(M)'s Elamaram Kareem -- said that they submitted amendments to Motion of Thanks to the President's address "regretting that the Address fails to mention" the Pegasus issue. Sources said there are around half a dozen MPs, including CPI(M)’s John Brittas, whose amendments on Pegasus were not admitted.

Kareem, also CPI(M) floor leader, told DH, "the government does not want that there should not be any mention of Pegasus in Rajya Sabha records because the latest media reports exposed the government's lies that it has not purchased the spyware. They are scared and so they are giving an excuse that the matter is sub-judice to avoid any mention or discussion."

Also Read — Centre rules out discussion on Pegasus, says it’s subjudice

Venugopal, also Congress' General Secretary (Organisation), said the government is "very much scared" of discussing Pegasus. "They know there are a lot of skeletons in their cupboards. They do not want a discussion.

An analysis of the amendments showed that 41 of the 99 amendments that were cleared were those of six CPI(M) MPs – Kareem, Jharna Das Baidya, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, John Brittas, K Somaprasad and V Sivadasan.

The eight Lok Sabha MPs whose amendments on Pegasus were admitted include Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Deepak Baij, K Sudhakaran and TN Prathapan, RSP’s NK Premachandran (RSP), CPI(M)’s AM Ariff, Trinamool Congress’ Saugta Roy and Shiv Sena’s Vinayak Raut.

The amendment will be voted at the conclusion of debate in Lok Sabha on February 8.

Government has declined Opposition’s demand to have a separate discussion on Pegasus saying that the matter is under the consideration of the Supreme Court. The Opposition has upped the ante over the issue following a report by the New York Times that the Narendra Modi government purchased the spyware.

In Lok Sabha, at least 29 out of 232 amendments were related to various aspects of the agriculture sector and 23 were related to Covid-19.

Krunal Balaji Tumane, a Shiv Sena MP, has submitted an amendment supporting the implementation of Uniform Civil Code. Another amendment regarding the need for a law to check increasing population was also listed against the names of Tumane and his party colleague Shrirang Appa Barne.

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