Minister Chandrasekhar hopes for Opposition’s participation in all bill discussions

The government expects the Opposition to participate in discussions on all bills in Parliament and it remains open to debate on all issues.

New Delhi: The government expects the Opposition to participate in discussions on all bills in Parliament and it remains open to debate on all issues, including Manipur, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday.

The government is expected to table the Digital Personal Data Protection(DPDP) bill in Parliament on Thursday.

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“The bill has evolved after a lot of consultation. I hope the Opposition is part of the process that passes the bill. We should debate it, we should pass the bill. I hope Parliament is not disrupted not for just this bill but every bill. Every issue the government is saying why don’t we debate, discuss it. Whether it is Manipur, DPDP, cooperation bill,” Chandrasekhar said.

He refuted allegations levelled by Rajya Sabha member John Brittas that DPDP bill has been shared with the Standing Committee of Communications and IT before its introduction in Parliament.

“He was wrong. I have very gently and politely pointed out to him that he was trying to misinform and create a fake narrative. The bill was never referred to the standing committee,” Chandrasekhar said.

The minister said that the standing committee has on its own evaluated the issue of citizen’s privacy and data protection, looked at the earlier draft and commented.

“They are well within their rights to do so. I think Brittas has tried to characterise it as some sort of backdoor by which the committee has got a copy of the bill in advance and members did not. I think this is a wrong characterisation,” Chandrasekhar said.

Brittas is also a member of the committee.

In his dissent note to the panel, Brittas said recommendations by the panel on DPDP bill in a draft report are void ab initio and ultra vires of the powers of the panel conferred by the rules.

“The rules proscribe the standing committee from examining such yet to be introduced bills,” Brittas said in the note.

The committee in its 48th report said delaying the implementation of the data protection framework could potentially expose individuals to various risks and compromise the privacy rights of citizens.

Recommendation of the committee follows detailed discussion with Ministry of Electronics and IT and other stakeholders around data security and privacy related issues of citizens.