Gujarat Confidential: Live-streaming ‘rights’

ON TUESDAY, the second day of the Gujarat Assembly’s Budget session, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs raised slogans at the entrance of the state Legislative Assembly, demanding to broadcast the House proceedings live. The four AAP MLAs – Gopal Italia, Chaitar Vasava, Hemant Khava and Sudhir Vaghani – raised slogans holding banners just before Tuesday’s House proceedings commenced demanding live-streaming of the House proceedings, as they claimed that not doing so is “killing democracy”. Italia sought to reason with claims such as “if the Supreme Court proceedings are broadcast live through YouTube, why not the Gujarat Assembly?” and “Delhi, Punjab, Maharashtra are doing so, then why not Gujarat?” He added that people have a right to know what the party and Opposition are doing in the Assembly and not broadcasting the proceedings live is a “violation of this right.” The four AAP MLA raised the same demand while showing posters in the House immediately after the Question Hour. The Speaker criticised the move of the AAP MLAs and asked them to stop it. After repeated instructions to the AAP MLAs, the Speaker asked sergeants to take away the posters from them. The long-pending demand of the Opposition gained momentum after the House proceedings went fully digital and paperless through the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) introduced during the 2023 monsoon session.