PM Modi launches Sansad TV: Shashi Tharoor and Priyanka Chaturvedi turns as TV show hosts

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched Sansad TV, created by merging Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV, jointly with Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The decision to merge Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV was taken in February, and the CEO of Sansad TV appointed in March.

Modi speaking on launching the Sansad channel said that Parliament is not only about politics but policy too and noted that content is about connecting that is as much applicable to the parliamentary system as to the media. He said it is very important that the common man connects with Parliament and feels he is part of it. The new channel adds another important chapter in the country’s parliamentary system, he added.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Siva Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi are going to turn into as TV show hosts in the newly launched Sansad TV. Politics in all likelihood will be off the table when Congress’s Shashi Tharoor hosts “To The Point” and Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi anchors “Meri Kahani”, both posing questions instead of answering them. Tharoor’s show will be about candid conversations with eminent personalities, Chaturvedi’s programme will have women MPs share their journeys.

I have interviewed actor Michael Douglas and a couple of others for United Nations Television, so I cannot claim to be totally inexperienced as an anchor, but it’s a refreshing change to find myself asking the questions rather than answering them! Tharoor said to media. It is an interesting space to be in as you control the narrative, you can ask the questions you want to from the guests, Chaturvedi added.

Other star hosts on the channel include economist Bibek Debroy, the government’s principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. According to officials, sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will be among the guests on Tharoor’s show, while Ms Chaturvedi’s show is set to have Indian classical dancer and MP Sonal Mansingh as a guest.

To The Point was conceived as a show that will go in depth into the life and work of the subject in a non-confrontational, easy-flowing conversational style, said Tharoor. Once the guests are chosen, I have a free hand in conducting the conversation as I see fit, he said. Chaturvedi said her programme focuses on talking to other women MPs about their journey to Parliament, where they began and how they manage to give time to their families as well as their parliamentary work. She said she asked Sonal Mansingh about her life as a dancer and challenges she faces in one of the episodes.

Former MP and senior Congress leader Karan Singh will host a show on the channel on different religions. According to the PMO, Sansad TV programming will primarily be in four categories functioning of Parliament and democratic institutions, governance and implementation of schemes, policies, history and culture of India, and issues, interests, concerns of contemporary nature.

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