Tharoor, Nishikant Dubey seek breach of privilege proceedings against each other

"It is, therefore, a clear case, of breach of privilege by Dr. Shashi Tharoor in the capacity of Chairperson of the Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Information Technology," he said in the notice. He alleged that this also goes on to show that Tharoor has committed a serious breach of privilege to use the parliamentary committee platform not only to "serve" his political agenda but also to tarnish BJP and "sensationalise a small incident by misusing his official powers”.

The political slugfest over the Facebook row intensified on Wednesday with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who as head of a parliamentary panel wants to summon officials of the social media platform, and BJP member Nishikant Dubey filing breach of privilege petitions against each other before the Lok Sabha Speaker. Tharoor, who heads the parliamentary panel on information technology, alleged that Dubey made "disparaging remarks" on social media over his decision to summon a panel meeting to discuss the alleged "misconduct" of Facebook. Hitting back, Dubey, who is a member of the panel, suggested in his plea that Tharoor was using the committee's platform for politics and that he decided to call Facebook officials to "satisfy the ego" of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who had alleged that BJP and RSS are controlling the social media platform. In his letter to Speaker Om Birla, Tharoor referred to the Wall Street Journal report which claimed that Facebook refused to apply hate speech rules to certain ruling party politicians and underlined the serious nature of allegations made against the social media platform and its far-reaching implications on the citizens' Right to Information.

Tharoor said he sought to convene the committee's meeting as part of the normal course of discussions on "safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms". The topic or agenda of the meeting "not only features on the list of subjects earmarked at the beginning of the year for the Committee's deliberations but also was finalised by the members of the Committee at our first meeting, and bulletinised with your consent," the Congress leader said. Despite this, Tharoor alleged Dubey "insultingly criticised" his decision to do so.

Tharoor alleged that Dubey's remarks amounted to a three-fold breach of privilege. "The contemptuous words used by...Dubey have cast aspersions on the intent and integrity with which I fulfil my duties as an elected representative...," he said.

In his charge against Tharoor, Dubey said he has no powers to summon any entity or organisation before the panel without consulting its members. Dubey said the agenda of any sitting of the parliamentary committee is decided after consultation with all the members of the parliamentary committee but, he added, Tharoor never consulted the agenda of summoning Facebook or WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) in any of its meetings. "It is, therefore, a clear case, of breach of privilege by Dr. Shashi Tharoor in the capacity of Chairperson of the Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Information Technology," he said in the notice.

He alleged that this also goes on to show that Tharoor has committed a serious breach of privilege to use the parliamentary committee platform not only to "serve" his political agenda but also to tarnish BJP and "sensationalise a small incident by misusing his official powers”. “Tharoor has surpassed all limits of decency, ethics and basic tenets of parliamentary procedure and practice vis-a-vis smooth functioning of parliamentary committee by way of committing a grave breach of privilege, not only in the capacity of an individual honourable Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha but also remaining in the exalted position of Chairperson of the departmentally related Standing Committees, viz, Information Technology,” Dubey alleged.

He also named Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the notice saying that he has also breached privileges by levelling unsubstantiated allegations against all the Members of Parliament belonging to the BJP..