NEW DELHI: Amid the outrage over influencer Ranveer Allahbadia‘s objectionable remarks on parents and sex on a comedy show, members of a parliamentary panel have planned to take up the issue, asserting the need for enacting regulations and laws to cover social media and Over-the-Top platforms. The issue was also raised in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has summoned Allahbadia and other content creators who were on the comedy show to appear before it on Feb 17. Women and child development minister Annpurna Devi, when asked about the issue at a press conference said, “We will ask NCW for a report.” Some members of the parliamentary committee on communications and information technology have said they will raise the issue of Allahbadia’s “vulgar” comments at the panel’s meeting on Feb 13. However, the influencer may not be summoned to appear before the panel, he said. Allahbadia has apologised for his comments.
In Lok Sabha, while Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, a committee member, said she will raise the issue for the kind of “vulgar, blasphemous content that is passed off as comedy”, Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske sought stricter guidelines for content on social media platforms, podcasts and OTT media services.
The NCW in a statement on Tuesday said the commission has taken serious note of the vulgar and offensive remarks made by content creators such as Allahabadia, Samay Raina, Apoorva Makhija, Jaspreet Singh, and Ashish Chanchlani, as well as the show’s producers Tushar Poojari and Saurabh Bothra. “These comments, which have sparked widespread public outrage, violate the dignity and respect owed to every individual, particularly in a society that upholds equality and mutual respect,” NCW said.