New Delhi:Â Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday raised the Net neutrality issue in the in Lok Sabha, accusing the Centre of trying to give away Internet space to corporates.
“Over 1 million people are fighting for net neutrality,” the 44-year-old said in the Lok Sabha, asking for a change in the law or a new law to protect net neutrality.
Gandhi spoke during the Zero Hour, when ministers are not supposed to respond to members, but IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made an exception.
“We want internet for 125 crore Indians. Don’t worry, we will protect the future of the Net,” Prasad said.
The clash continued outside the house.
Gandhi told reporters, “Like they are taking away land, they are taking away internet rights. They did not answer my question, just gave a roundabout answer.”
Prasad retorted, “Rahul Gandhi is wrong on the land issue and super wrong on the net neutrality issue.”
Earlier, raising the issue of Net neutrality, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi sought suspension of question hour in Lok Sabha and gave a notice for an adjournment motion to discuss the matter immediately.
A strong plea was made on Tuesday in the lower house in support of Net neutrality, with demands that the recent consultation paper brought out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) should be scrapped.
Raising the issue during the zero hour, M.B. Rajesh (Communist Party of India-Maoist) had alleged that the consultation paper brought out by Trai was “blatantly supporting†assault on Net neutrality by telecom and Internet service providers.
Several opposition members wanted to have their say on the issue. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said a notice should be given for a half-an-hour discussion and she would allow it.
The Congress Party had earlier demanded that the NDA Government order the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to scrap the regulatory framework paper under the Section 25 of the TRAI Act.
“Under the Section 25 of TRAI Act, which states that the government can give direct orders to TRAI in public interest, the Government of India should give direct orders to TRAI to scrap this regulatory framework paper,” said Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken.
“We want the government to take serious steps regarding net neutrality. This is a very important issue which will create problems in the future,” he added, and asserted that the Congress is in support of net neutrality.
Net neutrality promises all content on the internet to be treated equally and not discriminating on the basis of user, content, platform, and so on.
At present, India has no laws with respect to net neutrality.
(With inputs from agencies)