Shashi Tharoor takes dig at PM Modi over 'camera in Parliament' idea

New Delhi, Oct 01: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's endorsement of a new camera developed by students at the Indian Institute Madras (IIT-M) which he said will be useful in the Parliament.

Hailing the students of the hackathon for coming up with various solutions, PM Modi particularly singled out one regarding the camera, saying it will be useful in the Parliament.

"I especially like the solution about cameras to detect who is paying attention. Now what will happen you know I will talk to my Speaker in the Parliament (Om Birla) and I am sure it will be very useful to the Parliamentarians," PM Modi said at the prize distribution ceremony of the 'Singapore-India Hackathon' at IIT-Madras on Monday.

Countering the prime ministers statement, Tharoor tweeted "Agree that such an innovation will be useful, @narendramodi ji, if it is trained on your ministers, so they can be responsive to constructive criticisms &challenging... Parliament is not just for the rest of us to pay attention to the Govt's lectures. (sic)."

"Hackathons are great for youngsters, participants get access to state of the art technology for the solution of global problems. I firmly believe that the solutions found in today's hackathon are the start-up ideas for tomorrow," Modi hailed the students.

The IIT Madras which put in around 36 hours had come up with a solution involving video processing through Internet of Things.

20 teams of three university students, each from India and Singapore took part in the hackathon organised for promotion of culture and ideas.

This year's hackathon held between 28 and 29 focussed on themes like good health and well-being, quality education, and affordable and clean energy.