Sansad TV’s live telecast of proceedings in both Houses of Parliament has come into question with the INDIA parties crying foul over the manner in which cameras are focused more on the Chair when Opposition members are speaking.

This came into sharp focus on Wednesday when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was speaking on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. Apparently anticipating this, the Congress monitored the telecast and found that Sansad TV camera showed him for only about 40 per cent of the time he spoke.

In a tweet, Congress media in-charge Jairam Ramesh said: “In his first speech after coming back from the unjustified disqualification, @RahulGandhi spoke from 12:09 pm to 12:46 pm i.e. 37 minutes during the No-Confidence Motion. Out of which the Sansad TV camera showed him for ONLY 14 mins 37 seconds. That’s less than 40% screen time! What is Mr. Modi afraid of?

“This gets even worse! @RahulGandhi spoke on Manipur for 15 min 42 seconds. During which Sansad TV’s camera focused on Speaker Om Birla for 11 min 08 seconds i.e. 71% of the time. Sansad TV showed @RahulGandhi on video for only 4 min 34 seconds while he spoke on Manipur.”

This pattern continued through the day and the Opposition members could be heard protesting several times during the proceedings, particularly since Sansad TV cameras focused on ministers and those speaking from the ruling benches almost continuously.

Flagging this, BSP’s Danish Ali said when minister Smriti Irani showed a placard in the House, Sansad TV showed it with full focus but when Rahul showed some paper, the same channel shifted the focus to somewhere else. “Screen time of Opposition leaders is being unfairly trimmed,” he said.

Earlier this month, Trinamul Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale had written to the chief executive officer of Sansad TV complaining about the “blackout” of Opposition benches during the session broadcast.

“Over the past 20 days I have categorically noticed that while Treasury benches are prominently shown during the live telecast of Rajya Sabha session, the camera barely ever shows the Opposition benches that sit on the right side of the House,’’ Gokhale said in his letter dated August 2.

Reminding the CEO that as a public broadcaster Sansad TV is required to be non-partisan and give equal coverage on live TV of both Treasury and Opposition benches, Gokhale also offered to share analytics of the coverage.

Since Sansad TV alone has the right to telecast Parliament proceedings live, other television channels are dependent on its footage, thereby creating a multiplier effect.