New Delhi:
If the issue of net neutrality is dividing experts, it has also created strife in one of Parliament's panels.
A row has been raging ever since the Chairman of the Parliamentary Panel on Information and Technology, Anurag Thakur, created a sub-committee on Net Neutrality, NDTV has learnt. The panel includes members like Hema Malini and Javed Akhtar, but did not include Trinamool's Derek O'Brien, who claims he had been been involved in the issue for long.
In a letter to Mr Thakur on December 7, the tech-savvy lawmaker from Trinamool Congress has urged the Chair to reconsider the members of the sub-committee. "It would also be helpful if you could inform me of the criteria used to make membership decisions for Sub-Committees," he wrote, referring to members like Hema Malini who are yet to make their views on the issue public.
In the letter, he also reminded Mr Thakur how he was the one who made a calling attention motion on Net Neutrality in Rajya Sabha in May. This, he wrote, led to "receiving an assurance from the Minister that the Government will protect Net Neutrality".
The TMC's Rajya Sabha leader followed it up with another letter dated December 23, in which he referred to a personal meeting with Mr Thakur and asked again to be included in the panel. Mr Thakur confirmed receiving these representations. "We are considering it," he told NDTV, denying that exclusion was by design or was because of their differences on various issues.
Mr O'Brien, he added, was a member of the larger IT panel, which would be the one submitting the report on the issue, not the sub-committee.
Sources say the vocal TMC lawmaker had taken a different stand on various issues, which had led to friction with Mr Thakur.
For example, when telecom giants were called in for consultation, Mr O'Brien had asked why smaller players and activists were excluded. He also protested about the invitation to BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey as a special invitee.
Mr O'Brien has refused to comment on the matter.
Below are the letters that were sent by Derek O' Brien to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Panel on Information and Technology, Anurag Thakur.
Derek O Brien Letter on net neutrality- December 7
Derek O Brien Letter on Net neutrality- December 23