Netting trouble

The debate on net neutrality in the Rajya Sabha last week saw members resorting to a range of metaphors to convey their feelings. Bharatiya Janata Party member Tarun Vijay lashed out at private telecom operators, calling them "Shylock" and "sharks". Likening the fight for net neutrality to the freedom struggle, he urged the government to introduce an "internet Bill of civil rights". The Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Ritabrata Banerjee invoked Karl Marx and told the House that "the class that controls the means of production should also control the means of mental production". Former Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, professor and Congress member Rajeev Gowda borrowed a thought from the Star Trek television series and urged parliamentarians "to help people boldly go where no man has gone before".