BJP’s Dubey asks Tharoor to cancel I-T panel meeting

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and member of the parliamentary panel on Information Technology, Nishikant Dubey has written to the chairman of the committee, Shashi Tharoor, seeking cancellation of the panel’s upcoming meeting claiming that its agenda is in contravention of the rules of the House.

Dubey’s letter to the Congress MP comes a day after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla wrote to the heads of all panels asking them to select subjects based on rules and keeping in mind the convention that the House does not discuss issues that are “pending in the courts”.

“In this connection, I may like to bring to your kind notice that recently, your good self has convened yet another sitting of the Committee on 1 September 2020 to discuss the issue of 4G services in Jammu and Kashmir,” Dubey wrote in his letter on Wednesday. “Since this issue is presently pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court… any further deliberations on this would again be a violation of the relevant rules/directions, as well as the recently issued advisory of the Hon’ble speaker.”

Dubey and Tharoor have already sparred over l’affaire Facebook, where the social media company’s top lobbyist in India advised that the company not act against a BJP lawmaker whose posts violated the company’s standards on hate speech on the grounds that it wouldn’t go down well with the ruling dispensation., according to an investigative report in The Wall Street

Journal.

“The Committees should give due consideration to rule 270 and other necessary rules and directions while selecting subjects for examination,” Birla said in a letter, which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times. “In addition, I would like to point out that as per convention, the Committees do not take those subjects for examination where the issue is pending in the Courts.”

According to rule 270, “a Committee shall have power to send for persons, papers and records, provided any question arises whether the evidence of a person or the production of a document is relevant for the purposes of the Committee, the question shall be referred to the Speaker whose decision shall be final”.

Moreover, the rule adds that the Government may decline to produce a document on the ground that its disclosure would be prejudicial to the safety or interest of the state.

The Speaker’s letter came a week before the Information and Technology Panel is slated to discuss two contentious topics, the issue of Internet shutdowns in Jammu and Kashmir on September 1 and Facebook’s testimony over alleged bias towards the ruling party on September 2.

The Supreme Court is still considering the matter of Internet shutdowns in Jammu and Kashmir.

While the date of the next hearing has not been notified, on August 11, the Centre told the SC that 4G telecom services (including mobile internet) would be restored in the newly formed Union territory in a staggered manner after August 15.