New Delhi: Rajya Sabha TV on Wednesday briefly stopped the telecast of the live proceedings from the upper house during the discussion on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on the directions of chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu. The telecast was stopped for about a minute.
According to news agency PTI, the telecast was stopped when home minister Amit Shah was heckled by opposition members after he said that the rights of the Assamese people will be protected by the BJP government.
Rajya Sabha TV briefly stops telecast of proceedings when oppn members heckle Amit Shah over his claims of protecting interests of Assamese
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 11, 2019
Naidu warned the opposition members not to interrupt and said he will name them – a procedure that calls for an MP to withdraw from the proceedings of the house for the day.
As he did that, he also ordered that nothing they say will go on record.
Just then, Rajya Sabha TV stopped its live broadcast.
Sources in RSTV said this happens when the chair presses the red light button, signalling stoppage of the telecast.
RSTV resumed telecast of the proceedings soon after and showed the House is in complete order and only Shah was speaking.
Also Read: Will Rajya Sabha Pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill? Here’s What the Numbers Say.
According to Newslaundry, before the telecast was cut, Shah said, “Clause 6 of the Assam Accord had a provision that a committee will be set up by the Government of India for considering the demands of the people of Assam. This was signed but till Modi became PM, for 33 years, no committee was made…None of the protections that were promised to the people of Assam happened. It only happened when Narendra Modi became PM.”
An opposition leader interrupted him and said something that Naidu said should be struck off the record. The website said that the audio of what the MP said is unclear.
Shah continued, saying the government will “take care of the needs” of the Assamese. “We have created the Clause 6 committee which has people who protested as well. We request the committee to send us a report which the government can act on,” he said.
When another MP interrupted saying, “This is misleading”, the speaker reacted saying, “This is misbehaving.” Naidu then asked for the telecast to be stopped and transmission was cut off for a minute from 12:23 pm to 12:24 pm. When the transmission resumed, Shah was talking about the development work done by the Modi government.
How can the public broadcaster stop broadcasting Rajya Sabha proceedings just because the opposition was protesting? Rajya Sabha TV isn’t NaMo TV which was funded by Gujarati businessmen and is therefore not the personal advertising arm of the party in power. Shameful.
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) December 11, 2019
(With PTI inputs)