New Delhi: The opposition Congress on Thursday said that the BJP government had failed to define and address the issue of net neutrality and questioned private sector initiatives such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's internet .org (now known as 'free basics') and Bharti Airtel's zero-rated platform.

"Digital India should mean internet connectivity as a public utility, open-ended and generative and not subsidised and managed by large remote corporations," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said.

"Digital India cannot become a euphemism for internet.org as it did when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Facebook headquarters and put up a picture which had an embedded code to support internet.org," Surjewala said adding that the Congress supports the concept of net neutrality wherein all data on the internet should be treated equally and not be discriminated or charged differentially by user, content, site, platform or application.



"We also question Modi government's studied silence vis-a-vis schemes like Airtel Zero, internet.org/free basics etc. which seek to provide a 'closed internet' and 'world wide web' in the garb of providing access to certain sites free of cost."