PM Modi shown 12 times more than Rahul Gandhi on TV during President’s address: Jairam Ramesh shares numbers

Did the government-run television channel give the Opposition unfair coverage during the President’s address in Parliament? The Congress crunched some numbers to highlight “who was shown how many times in the 51-minute President’s address”. The party alleged a stark difference between the coverage given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. 

It shared an analysis to support the claim that the cameraman covering the address for Sansad TV was biased towards the Opposition.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister and Leader of the House Narendra Modi was shown 73 times on TV, while Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was shown six times – 12 times less than PM Modi. 

He further alleged that the government was shown 108 times and the Opposition was shown only 18 times. “Sansad TV is for showing the proceedings of the House, not for the narcissism of cameramen,” Ramesh posted on X on Thursday.

https://twitter.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1806242822494027846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Sansad TV “is the Parliamentary channel of India”. The government television channel was created in 2021 by merging Lok Sabha Television and Rajya Sabha Television. The channel broadcasts the proceedings of the two Houses of Parliament and other public affairs programming.

President’s address

President Droupadi Murmu addressed a joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday. It was her first address after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha.

In her speech, Murmu said the government is working towards creating an enabling environment for the youth of this country to dream big and realise those dreams. She said it is the continuous endeavour of the government to provide right opportunities to the youth of the country to demonstrate their talent.

“By providing encouragement to youth and their startups, the government has been able to lay down a strong foundation for a self-reliant defence sector…In the past, the youth had to run from pillar to post in order to get their certificates attested. Now their self-attestation is sufficient,” she said.

She said the central government is reviving the country’s cultural heritage and glory along with making efforts to build the future for the nation, taking pride in both ‘vikas’ and ‘virasat’.

“My government, along with making efforts to build a future, is also reviving the country’s cultural heritage and glory. Recently, the new grand Nalanda University campus that was inaugurated has added a new chapter to this,” she said.

President Murmu highlighted various accomplishments of the country in the past few years. Referring to the landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the moon’s south pole, she said, as a country, “we should take pride in this” and added that India is on its way to becoming the world’s third-largest economy.

(With inputs from agencies)