The Facebook controversy has reached to the Parliament’s business as the BJP leader Nishikant Dubey on Thursday wrote to the Lok Sabha seeking the removal of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor from the post of the chairman of the standing committee on Information Technology.
Dubey, who is also a member of the standing committee on Information Technology, cited the “flawed mode and terrible disdain towards the established parliamentary institutions being exhibited by Tharoor” as the reason for his demand.
Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore also pitched in with a letter seeking the removal of Tharoor accusing him of flouting rules.
“We are not against a representative of any organisation being called, but he instead of discussing with us, discussed it with the media,” Rathore was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“Tharoor’s tenure has been controversial. Speaking in Spenserian English in foreign accent does not give one freedom to an individual to disregard parliamentary institutions,” Dubey wrote.
Nishikant Dubey in his letter to Speaker Om Birla requested him to invoke Rule 283 –– power of speaker to give directions to the committees –– in relation to Rule 258 (3) of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha to choose another member to act as Chairperson of the IT committee.
Rule 258 (3) says: “If the Chairperson is absent from any sitting, the Committee shall choose another member to act as Chairperson for that sitting.”
He also shared the letter through a tweet:
Dubey had earlier alleged that Tharoor violated rules by not taking the members of the committee into confidence before shooting a letter to the Facebook.
He further alleged that Tharoor had been running the affairs of the committee “thoroughly unprofessional manner and to serve his political agenda of spreading rumours and defaming” the BJP and its members.
He said Tharoor had publicly expressed his disapproval to the move to hand over the Personal Data Protection Bill to Joint Select Committee instead of to the Standing Committee on IT. He pointed out that Tharoor had also criticised the government’s move to ban 59 Chinese apps as well as the issue of 4G not being available in Jammu and Kashmir. Tharoor’s mention of a practice followed by The House of Commons in his notice against Dubey also came under fire from the BJP MP.