A 30-member parliamentary committee on electronics and information technology in India heard the allegations leveled on social media site Facebook on Wednesday.

Officers associated with the department were present before this committee. Also, Facebook managing director in India Ajit Mohan also spoke.

According to the news agency PTI, the argument was made from Facebook that it has always kept transparency about its social media platform.

Facebook also said that it has also given people a means to express their expression without any political pressure.

The controversy began when an American newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, accused India of Facebook of doing more in favor of the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

It was also alleged in the newspaper that there is no control over the posts that promote hate against minorities on Facebook. It was also alleged that those alleged inflammatory posts were removed by Facebook when the newspaper gave information about them.

Facebook responded to these allegations via email, saying, "Any violence or hate content is banned on Facebook." It does not matter which way the political writer of the post writer is.

The parliamentary committee headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also included journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and a representative of a social media tracking group to help in the proceedings.

Sources in Parliament say that the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee was held in a closed room, but a video recording of the entire proceedings has been done.

The committee's hearing lasted for a long time. During this time, members of the ruling and opposition have kept silence about what happened in the closed room.

The committee consists of members from both houses of parliament, with a large number of members of the ruling party.

But even before the committee's meeting, the Congress wrote two letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, citing the conduct and posts made by two representatives working for Facebook in India.

After the letter, committee chairman Shashi Tharoor sent a notice to Facebook, while Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore demanded the removal of Tharoor as the chairman of the committee.

Dubey's written allegation is that Shashi Tharoor is working to advance his own and his party's agenda through this social media platform.

But the Speaker of the Lok Sabha did not respond to the letter.

Just a day before the committee's meeting, Union Law and Justice, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg alleging that his social media platform was censoring posts by right-wing ideologues.

Ravi Shankar Prasad also alleged that what has been written in the American newspaper is actually presenting a reverse image. He also said that 'it is condemnable to spread interference in the political system of India'.

Facebook has about 300 million users in India and Ravi Shankar Prasad also alleges that in the general elections held in 2019, Facebook did not allow the Bharatiya Janata Party to properly communicate to the people.

Because of this ongoing war between political parties, Facebook remains in constant discussion, but no one knows what happened in the parliamentary committee.

Speaking to the BBC, Vice President of Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh said that in total there are 24 parliamentary committees which have been formed on various departments or issues. These include MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha but most of the committees are headed by members of Lok Sabha.

There is already a clear outline for how the Parliament will run. The rules of legislative business are also clear which cannot be debated as they are part of the already prescribed parliamentary tradition.

Says Harivansh Narayan, "The parliamentary committee meeting is completely confidential about which committee members are not allowed to speak outside." Not only the members but those whom the committee calls by sending notices also cannot say anything outside. If they do, then it becomes a matter of breach of privilege. ''

MP Manoj Kumar Jha says that unless the report of the committee is put on the table of the Parliament, it cannot be made public. They say that members of the parliamentary committee and the people appearing before them are also bound by the oath.

Therefore, the proceedings of the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Electronics and Information Technology, which lasted for about three hours, are not available for the information of the common people until Parliament approves it. This is the legislative practice.

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