Shashi Tharoor decides not to host Sansad TV show until suspension of 12 MPs is revoked

Shashi Tharoor’s decision came a day after Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to resign from Sansad TV's show Meri Kahani. (File image)

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has decided to suspend hosting of a talk show on Sansad TV in solidarity with protesting MPs, who have been suspended from the Rajya Sabha, he said on December 6.

In a statement issued on Monday, Tharoor said he will suspend the hosting of talk show ‘To The Point’ until the suspension of the legislators is revoked and a “semblance of bipartisanship restored to the conduct of Parliament”.

“On reflection, and in solidarity with protesting MPs, I have decided to suspend my hosting of the talk show “To The Point” on Sansad TV until such time as the suspensions of MPs are revoked and a semblance of bipartisanship restored to the conduct of Parliament and the functioning of Sansad TV,” the statement read.

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— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 6, 2021

Beginning the statement, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said, “I believed that my accepting Sansad TV's invitation to host a show was in the best traditions of India's parliamentary democracy, reaffirming the principle that our political differences did not prevent us, as Members of Parliament, from participating fully in various parliamentary institutions which belong to us all.”

“However, the prolonged suspension of 12 MPs from the Rajya Sabha, expelled in an arbitrary manner for actions committed during a previous session, has called into question the very assumption of a bipartisan spirit animating the work of Parliament,” he said.

Tharoor further said that Sansad TV itself has been “accused of being part of the problem, as adverse comments have been made by many on its habit of having cameras focus on the members of the Treasury benches while ignoring the Opposition.”

Tharoor’s decision came a day after Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to resign from Sansad TV's show Meri Kahani.

Chaturvedi, along with 11 other opposition MPs, were suspended from Upper House on November 29 for the entire Winter session of the Parliament for their "unruly" conduct in the previous session in August.