Ghulam Nabi Azad (Express photo by Praveen Jain/File) Ghulam Nabi Azad (Express photo by Praveen Jain/File)

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad said Wednesday that Opposition speeches were being “blocked out” on Rajya Sabha TV and urged the House not to convert “Rajya Sabha TV to BJP TV”.

Azad made the remark after Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien alleged that RSTV transmission was disrupted for the first few minutes of his speech. During the disruption, RSTV telecast a pre-recorded programme and later cited technical difficulties. Transmission of O’Brien’s speech resumed after four minutes.

Azad said: “Don’t convert Rajya Sabha TV to BJP TV.” He alleged that Opposition speeches were “blocked out” and disproportionate amounts of coverage was given to BJP president Amit Shah on the channel. According to Azad, minuscule coverage was given for other leaders in news bulletins.

A statement from RSTV said: “The transmission of RSTV got interrupted from 13.14 hours to 13.18 hours due to power failure to main OFC Room at 12-A GRG office. It was found that there was electrical work going on at GRG office without any consent from technical department. The main OFC Room is being supplied by 40 KVA UPS and Output MCB was found tripped by electrician. The fault was restored by electrician after immediately informing by shift engineer about power failure.”

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Outside the House, O’Brien accused the government of imposing “super emergency” in Parliament. He alleged part of his speech was “deliberately blacked out”. “Though it started the telecast later, the first 5 minutes was not shown. Coincidentally, that was the part in which I had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah,” O’Brien said. He added all Opposition leaders met and decided to raise their voice against “such discrimination and dangerous situation.”

O’Brien also raised the issue in the House and said: “The first 4 to 6 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 enquire about this and let you know what happened.”

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Azad also said in the House, “It is not just the live telecast of proceedings. Day before yesterday when I had also spoken, I was watching the news; 98% time was given to the BJP president, 8 seconds given to my speech and 8 seconds to other Opposition leaders… RSTV is not BJP TV. You may have converted other media into your party media but do not do that with RSTV. There should be an enquiry by a committee comprising representatives of all parties.”

Jatiya then asked him to raise the issue with Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

While the telecast was disrupted, O’Brien had started with the President’s address to the two Houses, and to the nation on Republic Day. “I wish to first dwell on two of the points that he raised on Republic Day… ‘Institutions should be disciplined and morally upright and they are always more important than individuals in office’. I only wish this was also said in the Central Hall. That would have been a strong message at the right place… The second thing that he said in his Republic Day speech was, ‘Institutions are more important than individuals.’ I want to pass this message on from the Rashtrapati and all of us in this House to the people concerned here. These are the two important sentences,” said O’Brien.

He also accused Amit Shah of giving an “election maidan” speech in his maiden address to Rajya Sabha and referred to a mythological character: “Mahishasura was all evil. He was all negative… Finally, Sir, it took all the good forces to come together in the shape of a woman to finish Mahishasura, once and forever. Sir, that is my hope in this country.”

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