Tharoor urges action over officials’ skipping parliamentary panel meet

The parliamentary standing committee on information technology saw a battle of letters play out with its head Shashi Tharoor urging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take action over ministry officials’ “last-minute refusal” to attend a meeting of the panel and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey shooting off a missive to Birla calling for the Congress leader’s removal as the panel’s chairperson.

Dubey in his letter, also alleged that Tharoor is known for his “eccentric nature” as well as “acute psychological disorder and disorientation”, while the Congress leader later tweeted, without naming anyone, that he doesn’t want to respond to “uncouth and obnoxious comments” and cited a quote from Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw — “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”