Supriya Sule, an MP from the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar, expressed her opposition on the first day of the monsoon session of parliament. She repeated her protest against Sansad TV’s new practice of adding Hindi translations to speeches originally given in English or regional languages.
On Monday, Supriya Sule said on X, “Sansad TV began the alarming practice of replacing the speeches of MPs in English or regional languages with Hindi voice-overs in the first session of this Lok Sabha, and it has continued doing so in the Budget Session on the television broadcast. This is a form of censorship—it denies crores of non-Hindi speaking Indians the right to hear their elected representatives’ original words in their own languages. The government must immediately discontinue this discriminatory and anti-federal move.”
The issue with Sansad TV’s new approach started during the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha in June, right after the Lok Sabha elections. The official TV channel for parliament began silencing the original sound when MPs spoke in languages other than Hindi. Instead, they replaced it with Hindi voice-overs. This made criticisms from opposition leaders seem less forceful and passionate.
Urges “Ethical Politics”
In early July 2024, Supriya Sule, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) working president, emphasized the need for ethical practices in politics and urged the Union government to refrain from using “unethical tactics.” During an event in Kondhwa, she stated that while the NDA government is currently in power, the opposition, represented by the INDIA bloc, will not attempt to destabilize it. Sule remarked, “Nobody knows for how many days, months or years this government will function, but we will not destabilise this government. We will never take any step which will hurt the country”
Sule also highlighted concerns regarding alleged corruption within the state government’s agriculture department, specifically referencing a claim by the RSS about a ₹118 crore corruption in the direct benefit transfer scheme. She expressed a desire to raise this issue in Parliament but noted that the opportunity was not afforded to her party’s MP
