NEWS

Hours after the row over party MP Santanu Sen snatching papers from IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in Rajya Sabha, Trinamool Congress on Thursday said it will not allow Parliament to function unless the PM or the home minister participated in a “structured discussion” on the Pegasus issue.

“The mere assumption that the IT minister is entitled to speak on the issue is preposterous. The ramifications of this issue relate to snooping on elected MPs like terrorists, snatching fundamental rights and national security,” the TMC said.

TMC members had a parliamentary strategy meeting on Thursday where the party’s new general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, whose phone is among those alleged to have been put under surveillance, was present.

In a major boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' and strengthening the Indian Army, the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested indigenously developed low weight, fire and forget Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) on Wednesday (July 21, 2021).

"The missile was launched from a man-portable launcher integrated with thermal site and the target was mimicking a tank. The missile hit the target in direct attack mode & destroyed it with precision. The test has validated the minimum range successfully,'' the DRDO said in a statement.

It said that all the mission objectives were met during the flight test.

For the first time since the vandalism at Red Fort on January 26, a small group from among the farmers camping at Delhi's borders were allowed to enter the city to commence a protest at Jantar Mantar on Thursday. Outside Parliament, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that if farmer unions pointed out their objections to the provisions of the three farm laws they were protesting against, the government would be ready to discuss them with an “open mind”.

“The whole country knows that the agriculture reform laws are in the interest of farmers, beneficial for the farmers, providing options to the farmers, increasing their income and freeing them from legal clutches,” Tomar, who was the lead negotiator for the government in 11 rounds of unsuccessful talks with the protesters, told reporters.

Ruling out a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into alleged surveillance using the Pegasus spyware, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, said Wednesday that the committee will “do its duty” and that the subject is “already on the mandate of my committee”.

The House committee has called representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecommunications on July 28 to discuss citizens' data security and privacy.