New Delhi: Congress Member of Parliament R Sudha has called for strict action against Navika Kumar, Group Editor in Chief of Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, over an alleged breach of parliamentary privilege. In a letter addressed to the Hon’ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sudha highlighted a serious incident involving the unauthorized videography of Lok Sabha proceedings on July 1, 2024.
The letter, which includes a video clipping of the Lok Sabha proceedings posted on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) by Navika Kumar, claims that the footage was captured either from the Treasury benches or ‘obtained’ from Sansad TV. Sudha emphasized that such actions constitute grave misconduct and a breach of parliamentary privilege.
The letter drew parallels with previous incidents where parliamentary privileges were breached. During the 16th Lok Sabha, Member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann faced serious consequences for videographing the process of Zero Hour notice ballot in the Parliamentary Notice Office of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The incident led to the formation of a specially constituted Inquiry Committee, which ultimately recommended Mann’s suspension for the remaining part of the session on December 8, 2016.
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Similarly, in the Rajya Sabha, Member Smt. Rajani Ashokrao Patil faced suspension for nearly three months after videographing part of the proceedings and publishing it on social media. Her case was referred to the Committee of Privileges for examination and report.
Sudha underscored that the current incident involving Navika Kumar’s unauthorized videography and subsequent uploading of the footage on social media is a serious breach of privilege and contempt of the House. The Congress MP urged for a comprehensive investigation by the Committee of Privileges or a specially constituted Inquiry Committee to ensure that those responsible are appropriately punished.
“The unauthorized videographing of proceedings of Lok Sabha on July 1, 2024, and uploading the same on social media amounts to grave misconduct and a breach of privilege and contempt of the House. Shri Navika Kumar, who posted the video footage on social media, and those responsible for sharing this video footage come under the rigors of breach of parliamentary privilege and misconduct,” the letter stated.
