Facebook row: BJP MP requests Lok Sabha speaker to replace Shashi Tharoor as head of Parliament panel on IT

The confrontation over the issue of summoning Facebook India officials intensified on Thursday with BJP MP Nishikant Dubey approaching Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to remove senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor as the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology.

In his latest letter to the Speaker, Dubey alleged that Tharoor has been running the affairs of the committee in a "thoroughly unprofessional manner and to serve his political agenda of spreading rumours and defaming my party".

He said speaking in 'Spenserian English with a foreign accent' does not give freedom to an individual to disregard Parliamentary institutions to 'meet his own political ambitions'.

Read: BJP, Tharoor in a war of words over Facebook probe; parliamentary panel to summon Facebook

This comes a day after both Tharoor and Dubey submitted privilege motions against each other over the issue. Another BJP MP Rajyavardhan Rathore also jumped in with a letter to Birla seeking action against Tharoor for speaking in public about summoning Facebook officials without discussing the matter first in the committee.

Tharoor had said that Facebook India officials will be summoned following a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that said that the social media giant's India office did not act against the hate posts of a BJP and three other Hindutva supporters after its policy head Ankhi Das took a stand that any action against them would have a detrimental impact on its business here.

Congress and opposition parties like the CPI(M) have demanded a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) while the BJP attacked Tharoor and Congress saying they were following its former president Rahul Gandhi's agenda. The Opposition alleged that Facebook India has been collaborating with the BJP to sideline Opposition voices.

While Dubey questioned his authority to summon Facebook India and accused him of furthering Rahul's agenda, Tharoor had hit back saying that he has brought the committee's work into disrepute while Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said it was amazing how BJP jumps up and down at anything to do with FB’s interests.

Also Read: Facebook row: Tharoor, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey seek breach of privilege proceedings against each other

In the letter, the BJP MP cited the criticism of Tharoor on sending Personal Data Protection Bill to a joint committee instead of the panel on Information Technology, ban on 59 Chinese Apps, 4G coverage in Jammu and Kashmir and cancellation of committee meeting during Covid-19 among others.

Dubey claimed that all these showed that Tharoor has failed in his duties and it is now an impossibility to regulate the affairs of the committee till the time the Congress leader heads it.

Separately, Rathore told reporters that he has written to the Speaker against Tharoor speaking in public about the matters related to the committee.

"Issuing statements as to who would be summoned and what would be the agenda of the meeting is absolutely uncalled for and is violative of the procedures of the Lok Sabha. The proclivity of the IT committee chairman to speak to the media first undermines the functioning of the committee members and the committee itself," he said.

He said MPs have no issue on "summoning whosoever the committee feels needs to be summoned for the protection of the rights of citizens of our country" but added that the matter should be discussed in the panel first.