Congress protest on net neutrality, asks Centre to stop TRAI move

NEW DELHI: Backing up Rahul Gandhi’s defence of net neutrality in Parliament, the Delhi Congress and its youth and student wings staged a protest in the Capital on Friday, accusing the NDA regime of “engineering the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India” aimed at “scrapping net neutrality and the larger public interest”.

The dharna by DPCC leaders and activists under president Ajay Maken, the Youth Congress and NSUI supporters came on the last day for submitting public response to TRAI floated public consultation paper on net neutrality.

Congress and its youth wing activists gathered at Jantar Mantar supporting freedom to access internet without discrimination and demanded that rights of the consumers be protected. Addressing the gathering and later the media, Ajay Maken alleged that the Centre was trying to empower corporates and telecom companies.

“Why should internet companies and telecom operators have the right to decide if we should use WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter or buy (anything) from Flipkart or Amazon India? This right should be with the consumer. Internet companies and private companies should not have this right”, he said.