Shashi Tharoor steps aside as Sansad TV host amid Rajya Sabha suspension row
Tharoor said his continued involvement in hosting the show was no feasible considering his solidarity with the suspended parliamentarians
Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor stepped aside as the host of a talk show on state-run television channel Sansad TV, following Shiv Sena lawmaker Priyanka Chaturvedi’s decision to quit as a programme host on the channel on Sunday in protest of the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members of Opposition parties for alleged unruly behaviour.
“On reflection, and in solidarity with the protesting MPs, I have decided to suspend my hosting of the talk show “To the Point” on Sansad TV until such time as the suspension of MPs are revoked and a semblance of bipartisanship restored to the conduct of Parliament and functioning of Sansad TV,” Tharoor wrote in a letter.
The Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended from the house on the first day of the winter session which began on November 29 for “unruly behaviour” during the previous monsoon session. Six of them including Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, R Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh were from the Congress, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri were from the Trinamool Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai were from the Shiv Sena, and the remaining two were Elamaram Kareem of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Binoy Viswam of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
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Tharoor said his continued involvement in hosting the show was no feasible considering his solidarity with the suspended parliamentarians. “As an MP who has gone every morning to greet protestors and express my solidarity with them, I am concerned that my continued involvement in hosting a show on Sansad TV would be seen as making me complicit in the undemocratic manner in which Parliamentary institutions are running,” he added.
Sansad TV chief executive officer Ravi Capoor did not want to comment on the matter.
On Sunday, Priyanka Chaturvedi resigned as the host of ‘Meri Kahani’ aired on Sansad TV. In her letter addressed to Rajya Sabha chairman and vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu, she said she felt “great anguish” but also “a sense of responsibility” towards her constitutional duties.