NEW DELHI: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Monday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asking to be shifted from Shashi Tharoor-led parliamentary panel on information technology, saying the Congress member has been repeatedly breaching the secrecy clause.
Objecting to a series of Tharoor’s tweets on the alleged TRP scam, Dubey accused him of misusing the standing committee platform and violating the Lok Sabha Speaker’s advisory with his “Catch the Media Attention” campaign. Tharoor is the chairman of the panel which is also looking into issues related to ratings of news channels.
In his letter to the Speaker, Dubey said that “it is also an abject display of truant behaviour on the part of Tharoor to abusively call” a TV channel and also make “unsubstantiated insinuations and rant against various reputable companies”.
Openly discussing various aspects, which are under examination of the parliamentary panel, “is an affront” to the Speakers’ pious advisory of refraining from such acts”, he said. “Tharoor has now become incorrigible. I, being a public representative for the third consecutive time, feel pained and, therefore, request your good self to kindly consider nominating me to some other committee,” he said.
Under the chairmanship of Tharoor, the parliamentary panel had recently called officials of the central government on the issue of TRP. In August, Dubey had sought removal of Tharoor as the chairman of the panel after the Congress MP from Kerala tweeted on taking up the issue of suspension of internet services in Jammu & Kashmir and calling Facebook officials over alleged misuse of the social media platform.