Condemning the alleged blackout of Lok Sabha TV during the passage of Telangana Bill in the House, the BJP on Wednesday demanded that the proceedings be shown live when the Bill is taken up in Rajya Sabha. “A resolution has been passed by the party, saying the blackout was planned and not a technical glitch. This is in a way a disregard for democracy and democratic traditions were destroyed so that the country should not see the debate on the issue,” BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravishankar Prasad said after the Parliamentary Party meeting chaired by L K Advani. The BJP, in this context, also criticised the Lok Sabha secretariat deploring that there is no video available for the public records in future. “Serious questions have been raised on the credibility of Lok Sabha Secretariat and it has to answer under whose pressure the blackout was done. It has also come out that the recording has not been done at all. Why was no audio or video recording done?” Prasad said. The issue of Telanagana Bill also came up for discussion. Party leadership told party MPs that the BJP will be moving amendments to the Bill in the Rajya Sabha to press for justified demands of Seemandhra region.
