Facebook row: Two BJP MPs write to Speaker, say Tharoor violated norms
NEW DELHI: Two BJP MPs, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Nishikant Dubey, have shot off letters to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, questioning the conduct of the standing committee chairman on IT Shashi Tharoor. The MPs have alleged that Tharoor is violating the rules of the committee by speaking outside the meetings about the witnesses being summoned.
Rathore has said that Tharoor speaks to the media about who is going to be summoned to the Parliamentary panel even before the committee takes up the issue for deliberations. “I’ve no issues about who is going to be summoned, but the matters should be first discussed within the panel. Tharoor speaks to the media before the committee discussing the issues,” said Rathore.
The BJP is upping the ante against the Congress over the alleged biases by social media platforms, including the Facebook, for certain opinions. Dubey, who is having a running spate with Tharoor, with both complaining of the breach of privileges against each other, sought from the Lok Sabha Speaker in a letter that the IT panel chairman be removed from the post for violating the rules of the conduct of the Parliamentary panel.Dubey charged that Tharoor is misusing the Parliamentary panel to further his political agenda, saying that the chairman of the committee made uncalled for allegations against the BJP with regards to the social media platforms. Dubey in the letter to the Speaker argued that the social media platforms need to be regulated to protect the image of the country.