Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will not host talk show ‘To The Point’ on the Sansad TV in protest against the prolonged suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members.
Mr. Tharoor is the second MP to take this step. On December 5, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi pulled out of her commitment. She is one of the 12 MPs to be suspended for the entire session.
Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV were recently merged to bring in Sansad TV. As a part of the revamp, many MPs were roped in to host shows here.
The prolonged suspension of the MPs in an arbitrary manner for the actions committed during the previous session, Mr. Tharoor said, had called into question the very assumption of a bipartisan spirit animating the work of Parliament.
“I am concerned that my continued involvement in hosting a show on Sansad TV would be seen as making complicit in the undemocratic manner in which parliamentary institutions are being run,” he stated.
The Sansad TV, he noted, was part of the problem, because it focused attention only on members of the Treasury benches while ignoring the Opposition. “A parliamentary TV channel must, by definition, reflect the diversity of Parliament and not just whitewash the reality of Parliament's current functioning.”
Mr. Tharoor asserted that he was suspending hosting the programme to the point until the suspension was revoked and a semblance of bipartisanship restored to the conduct of the Parliament and the functioning of the Sansad TV.
