A war of tweets broke out between the ruling BJP and the Opposition over a US media report that said Facebook’s content policies favoured the ruling party in India. Embroiled in the Twitter snipes were BJP’s Nishikant Dubey on one side and Congress’s Shashi Tharoor and Trinamool’s Mahua Moitra on the other.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article titled ‘Facebook Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics’ claimed that Facebook tends to look the other way concerning hate speeches by leaders linked to the ruling BJP.

The Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, responded by saying that he may summon Facebook over the report published on Friday by the Wall Street Journal. “The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology would certainly wish to hear from @Facebook about these reports and what they propose to do about hate-speech in India.”

The BJP’s Nishikant Dubey, who is a member of the committee, retorted, “The Chairman of the Standing Committee does not have the authority to do anything without discussion of the agenda with its members. Shashi Tharoor, stop Rahul Gandhi’s agenda without authorisation by the Committee and Speaker.”  Dubey added that a parliamentary panel “should not be made a political platform by members.”

At this point Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra, also a member of the committee,  jumped into the exchange and tweeted, “Am IT committee member – agenda item was already agreed and bulletinised with Speaker’s approval at the beginning of the year. When to schedule each item and who to call is the chairman’s prerogative.”

This earned her a pat on the back by Tharoor who responded, “You are absolutely right…by imputing motives to my decision, Nishikant Dubey has brought the Committee’s work into disrepute, a matter I will take up. Extraordinary that an MP would suggest that a matter of such great public interest should NOT be taken up by us!”

Dubey then responded to Moitra with, “Please read rule 269, regards.”  The rule, according to a screenshot tweeted by Ms Moitra, says: “A witness may be summoned by an order signed by the Secretary-General and shall produce such documents as are required for the use of a committee.”