The appointment of BJP’s Jharkhand MP Nishikant Dubey as chairman of the standing committee for information, technology, and communication has not gone down well with the Trinamool Congress, with the party approaching the Lok Sabha Speaker to change the committee of its fiery MP Mahua Moitra to avoid a confrontation between the two leaders.
Taking to social media to discuss his new role and explain how a committee can be run only with cooperation between the ruling party and the Opposition, Dubey said: “By making me the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Information Technology, Post and Information Broadcasting of the Parliament, the Hon’ble Prime Minister @narendramodi ji and @loksabhaspeaker Chairman ji have entrusted me with a big responsibility. This Parliamentary Committee will review fake news, the status of journalists, the new online media laws of the British and European Union, the losses being caused to IT due to the World Trade Organization agreement, the status of newspapers, the laws of broadcasting, the copyright act, the censor board, the status of film artists, our committee will also look into the Press Council Act of 1976.
“We will give collective advice to the government which will be free from bickering. We will make efforts in the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s developed India 2047. The cooperation of both the ruling party and the opposition is necessary to build a country. Forget the past and think about the future.”
The feud between Dubey and Moitra can be traced to the former’s role in pursuing a case against the Trinamool Congress leader for allegedly sharing her Lok Sabha log-in credentials with businessman Darshan Hiranandani. The incident had led to furore in the House and after an ethic panels submitted its report to the Lok Sabha Speaker about her conduct, the TMC MP was expelled just a few months before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, she contested the polls from Bengal’s Krishnanagar and returned victorious to the Lok Sabha.
In the last Lok Sabha term, both Moitra and Dubey were part of the same committee. The two would often lock horns, especially when Shashi Tharoor was the chairman. In fact, in one of the meetings, Moitra was accused of calling the BJP MP a ‘gunda’ [goon]. Apart from Moitra, a few other members have also expressed reservations with being a part of the panel.
The 31-member panel chaired by Dubey has several members who represent the film and music world. Veteran music maestro and Rajya Sabha MP Ilaiyaraaja, actor-turned-Lok Sabha MP Kangana Ranaut, and Rajya Sabha MP V Vijayendra Prasad, writer of films such as Baahubali, are its members.
On October 1, a notification of the Rajya Sabha informed that a number of MPs have been successfully able to implement the change in the committee that they wanted to be a part of. Actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan, who was recently appointed to the department related standing committee for IT, had conveyed to the Rajya Sabha chairman that she wanted to be shifted to another committee. Honouring her request, she has now been transferred to the committee for labour and textiles.
Similarly, Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale from the TMC has opted out of the labour committee and become a member of the IT committee. DMK MP from the Rajya Sabha R Girirajan and Rajya Sabha MP from CPI AA Rahim have also opted out of the committee for external affairs and are now members of the standing committee for housing and urban affairs.
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