Congress MP Manish Tewari calls for parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies

Congress leader Manish Tewari has favoured the regulation of Indian intelligence agencies through parliamentary oversight, remarks that come in the backdrop of the recent allegations emanating from the US and Canada.

The Lok Sabha MP from Chandigarh has already submitted a private bill in this regard and also called for a National Intelligence Tribunal to investigate complaints against these agencies.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home.

The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Prime Minister Trudeau's allegations in September last year of the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India, in Canada.

India has rejected the charges as absurd and denied any involvement of its agencies or officials.

"Parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies is an idea whose time has come.

"Had my Private Member's Bill on Providing a legal basis for our Intelligence Services & a robust Parliamentary oversight mechanism... been accepted by successive governments from 2011 to 2024, India would not have been in the embarrassing position it finds itself internationally," Tewari said in a post on X.

He said he first introduced the bill in Parliament in the Budget Session of 2011, then again in the Winter Session of 2021 and then on 9th August 2024 during the Monsoon Session.

"A policy brief I wrote 15 years back for the @orfonline on why Intelligence agencies must be put on a proper legal basis and subject to Parliamentary oversight...This paper became the basis for my subsequent Private Member's Bill," Tewari said in another post on X.

In his private member's bill - the Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulation) Bill, 2024, Tewari batted for regulating the manner of the functioning and exercise of powers of Indian intelligence agencies within and beyond the territory of India and to provide for the coordination, control and oversight of such agencies.

Tewari also called for enacting legislation to provide a legislative and regulatory framework for the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and the National Technical Research Organisation and provide a designated Authority regarding authorisation procedure and system of warrants for operations by these agencies.

A former Indian government official has been charged by the US authorities for his alleged role in a foiled plot to assassinate Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil around the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pannu was designated as a terrorist by India.

Vikas Yadav, 39, was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the federal prosecutors claimed on Thursday in an indictment filed in a US court in New York.

Yadav faces murder-for-hire and money laundering charges in connection with his role in directing a foiled plot to kill Pannun.

Tewari demanded through his bill the setting up of a National Intelligence and Security Oversight Committee for an effective oversight mechanism of these agencies and an Intelligence Ombudsman for the efficient functioning of the agencies.

The Oversight Committee, as per the private member's bill, shall consist of the Chairman of the Council of States, as Chairperson and the Speaker of the House of the People, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Leader of Opposition in the House of the People, the Leader of Opposition in the Council of States; and one member each from the House of the People and the Council of States to be nominated by the Presiding Officers of the respective Houses, as members.

The National Intelligence Tribunal shall have its Chairperson who shall be a sitting or a retired judge of the Supreme Court, to be appointed by the Central Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Congress leader proposed.

It will have a member who is or has been a judge of the High Court to be appointed by the Central Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned and one member who shall be appointed from amongst persons who have been the head of the IB or the R&AW, to be appointed from the two services alternately, the Congress leader has proposed.

Tewari has also proposed that a proper legal framework is required to regulate surveillance of other forms, using different technologies, as well.

There is an urgent need to balance the demands of security and privacy of individuals, by ensuring safeguards against the misuse of surveillance powers of intelligence agencies, he said in the bill, while calling for the urgent need of a legislation.