Social media defaming MPs: Naresh Agrawal

NEW DELHI: Naresh Agrawal of the Samajwadi Party on Thursday said that social media was being used to defame Members of Parliament (MPs) and the government must come up with some mechanism to deal with the problem.

He raised the matter during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha and expressed his unhappiness over MPs being defamed by people posting comments on their salaries and perks.

"MPs get this, they get that... they talk about our salaries and other perks and when we go among general public, we face humiliation because of these comments on social media," Agrawal said.

On this, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien laughingly said that he should also get on to social media networks and respond to adverse comments.

Rajeev Shukla of the Congress also supported Agrawal on the issue, saying that it was being projected as if only MPs eat at canteens in Parliament and they are a privileged lot in every way.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi capped the issue saying that "these are anti-social activities of social media".

He also assured the House that the government would think over the issue and do something about it.