The opposition party Congress in Gujarat on Monday sought a live telecast of the state assembly proceedings, saying people have the right to know about issues their elected representatives raise in the House.
Citing a recent incident wherein Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi had uploaded a small clip of the House proceeding on his social media handle, the Congress demanded a similar privilege for all legislators.
After the Question Hour, Congress Legislative Party leader Amit Chavda urged the BJP government and the Speaker to start a live telecast of the assembly proceedings.
“Since this House is run with the taxpayers’ money, they have the right to know what happens here and what issues their elected representatives take up. Apart from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, 28 different states, including some ruled by the BJP, have allowed the telecast of their respective assemblies,” Chavda said while addressing Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Speaker Shankar Chaudhary.
He said, “A minister had shared a video clip of his address inside the assembly on his social media platform. Everyone feels that live telecasts should be allowed, and all the MLAs must get videos of their speeches without discrimination. I urge the CM and the Speaker to make a decision about live telecast and providing clips to all MLAs.” He further alleged that an edited TV programme on the assembly’s Question Hour, which is prepared by the state information department and broadcast on TV channels the same day, is full of bias because it shows only the government’s version.
Without giving any definitive assurance about the live telecast, the Speaker said he would discuss the issue of video clips with all the party representatives during the assembly’s business advisory committee meeting next week.
“There was a request from Minister Harsh Sanghavi for that clip. Since the government felt that the issue raised in the clip was important and people must see it, I allowed it. Thus, only that one clip was given. We will discuss this issue next week in the business advisory meeting,” he said.
Later, Congress MLAs staged a protest outside the assembly over the issue.
Chavda also wrote to Chaudhary demanding a live telecast of the House proceedings and providing video clips to all the MLAs without any discrimination.
Talking to reporters, the Congress leader alleged that the BJP government was serving only “one-sided and biased” information to people through its TV programme “Lokshahi Na Dhabkara” (Heartbeats of Democracy).
Chavda said, “Congress is subjected to injustice and bias because only the government’s version is shown in the programme. We were also denied video footage. We believe that all the MLAs must get footage. If other states can do live telecasts, what stops the BJP government here? Are they trying to hide anything from people?
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