Opposition MPs walk out from meeting of Parliamentary panel on IT

NEW DELHI: All opposition MPs on Tuesday walked out from Parliamentary Standing Committee meeting on Information Technology (IT) and Communications which was held in Parliament Annexure.

All opposition members walked out of the meeting of the Standing Committee on IT and Communications because BJP’s Nishi Kant Dubey and Anil Agarwal insisted that the Opposition members adopt the new Personal Data Protection bill without giving them a chance to examine the final and latest bill.

An opposition MP told ANI, “John Brittas from CPI-M, Karti Chidambaram from Congress, Mahua Moitra from TMC and Jawar Sircar vehemently opposed the move to force the standing committee to pass its draft report (not even the final report) without attaching the bill to this report. The government is trying to control our personal data and spy on us, instead of protecting it.”

Opposition members demanded postponement of the move as they wanted to examine the latest bill which has gone through many changes earlier. An opposition MPs said, “In the last version, the Govt was destroying the watchdog body called Data Protection Board by packing it with its own men rather than appointing judicial and independent persons. My other objection was that Temporary Consent to use personal data (of illness etc) given to a Data Fiduciary cannot be shared with others and without my consent. But the Govt is not guaranteeing this.” The Standing Committee for IT has called for a discussion on consideration and adoption of two draft reports on the subject (i) “Citizens' data security and privacy” related to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology; and (ii) “Review of functioning of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)” related to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.