The Opposition has sought an inquiry into the alleged blacking out of the first few minutes of Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien’s speech by Rajya Sabha TV, and asked the BJP not to convert the channel into “BJP TV”.
Mr. O’Brien raised the issue in the House, saying: “I seek your protection. I spoke today in the Rajya Sabha. The first four to six minutes of my speech were not shown on Rajya Sabha TV. I am a member of the Opposition. You protect us.”
BJP leader Satyanarayan Jatiya, who was in the Chair, said, “We will inquire about this and let you know what happened.”
‘Very serious issue’
Terming it a “very serious issue”, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said “don’t convert Rajya Sabha TV into BJP TV”. He said the channel should give equal coverage to all political parties, whether it was live telecast or news.
Mr. Azad said at least 98% of the 8 p.m. news bulletin on he channel on February 5 was related to BJP president Amit Shah’s maiden speech in the Upper House during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the joint session of Parliament. He said the Opposition was given 16 seconds air time on the bulletin. “This is Rajya Sabha Television. There should be an inquiry regarding this and the [news bulletin/coverage] day before yesterday [Monday],” Mr. Azad said.
Mr. Jatiya asked him to raise the issue with Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.
‘Not on YouTube too’
Later, Mr. O’Brien said: “This is super emergency. This government is trying to mute the Opposition, it will not be successful.”
The Rajya Sabha TV froze, he said, when Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien was about to announce Mr. O’Brien’s name. It then cut away to a pre-recorded programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “It was only six minutes after my speech began that the Rajya Sabha TV finally started telecasting it. The first six minutes of the speech were not available even on the YouTube channel of Rajya Sabha TV,” he said.
Power failure
In a report to Mr. Naidu, Om Prakash, executive producer of Rajya Sabha TV, said the transmission got interrupted from 1.14 p.m. to 1.18 p.m. due to “power failure”. “It was found that there was electrical work going on at the Gurudwara Rakab Ganj office without any consent from the technical department,” the report said.
Senior Rajya Sabha TV officials said it needed to be assessed whether the “power failure” was deliberate or inadvertent. “We have also taken note of Mr. Azad’s statement. In our editorial meeting on Tuesday, the officials concerned were told that coverage needs to be professional and more balanced,” a senior official said.
