A parliamentary committee headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Thursday wrote to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to propose amendments to existing media laws by February 17, aiming to clamp down on controversial remarks like the one made by influencer Ranveer Allahbadia on comedian Samay Raina’s now-deleted YouTube show — India’s Got Latent.
The bipartisan demand arose during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology earlier in the day, where lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties voiced concerns over the influencer’s obscene comments and stressed the need for stringent action.
The parliamentary panel held discussions with Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju and other senior officials, focusing on the necessity of regulating digital content.
The committee also wrote a letter to the ministry which read: “With the examination of the subject ‘Review of Implementation of Laws related to all forms of Media’, and in the light of recent episode of controversy generated by the vulgar remarks of YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia in a YouTube short, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is requested to provide a brief note regarding the amendments required in all the laws (Act, Code, Guidelines, etc) related to media due to the emergence of new forms of technology and media platforms”.
Several MPs, including BJP’s Anil Baluni, VD Sharma, and Lahar Singh Siroya, along with BJD’s Sasmit Patra and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, raised the issue and emphasised the need for robust legal frameworks to regulate content across social media and Over The Top (OTT) platforms.
Reacting strongly to the episode, BJP MP Rabindra Narayan Behera said that the government should ban Allahbadia’s statement and discuss how to punish him. “There should be new rules for punishment because such remarks will destroy our culture,” Behera said.
WHAT RANVEER ALLAHBADIA SAID?
A nationwide controversy erupted after Ranveer Allahbadia, who appeared in an episode of India’s Got Latent, asked a contestant an outrageous question: “Would you watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life, or would you join in once and stop it forever?” The video, which quickly went viral on social media, sparked widespread outrage and condemnation.
Allahbadia who has more than 16 million followers across social media platforms, apologised for his comments, dubbing it as a “lapse in judgement”.
On the other hand, Samay Raina, who is currently in Seattle as a part of his pre-scheduled international tour, has deleted all the episodes of India’s Got Latent from YouTube. Allahbadia, Raina and other social media influencers who appeared on the show as ‘judges’ have been summoned by Mumbai Police, Maharashtra Cyber Cell and Assam Police.