For the first time, the proceedings of the Lok Sabha will be available in ten languages in real-time. The English and Hindi audio interpretation of proceedings will also be telecast and streamed online. In addition, by the end of July, proceedings will be streamed online live in Odia, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi and Malayalam.
The interpretations will come from the simultaneous interpretation service of Parliament, whose services have so far only been available to MPs present in the house.
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Due to technical constraints on cable and direct-to-home satellite broadcasting, only one regional language, on a rotation basis, will be telecast each day. However, by the end of the month, the Lok Sabha proceedings will be available in English, Hindi, and ten regional languages on YouTube.
Viewers reported on X on July 22 that the “floor audio,” or the proceedings without any interpretation, was unavailable for the moment. A Sansad TV executive chalked this up to technical challenges with broadcasters, and said it would be fixed soon.
The Budget speech by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was only planned in Hindi and English on Sansad TV 1 and Sansad TV 2, the Lok Sabha secretariat said, while the technical arrangements for broadcasting all interpretations are underway.
Promoting regional languages
The move aligns with the government’s stated efforts to promote regional languages. English, however, retains its link role in this scheme. In the live Telugu rendition of Monday’s Lok Sabha proceedings, for instance, the interpreter appeared to quickly follow the lead of the English interpreter whenever MPs spoke in Hindi, a practice that is likely to be the norm for many other regional languages.
Sansad TV chief editor Shyam Sahay told The Hindu that the original floor audio and an English interpretation was available for both houses of Parliament on all DTH set top boxes.
This is the first time that the simultaneous interpretation service — available to MPs during proceedings so they can understand multilingual proceedings — has been broadcast live to the general public. “This language interpretation is being provided by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on a trial basis,” Sansad TV said in a disclaimer on its YouTube channel. “In case of any doubt, please refer to the original broadcast.”
Livestreams of Lok Sabha proceedings in all ten languages will be available from July 29, Mr. Sahay added, while Rajya Sabha proceedings are currently only planned for TV broadcast in the floor language, as well as Hindi and English.
When the Hindi interpretation of Parliamentary proceedings was aired on DTH platforms during the inaugural days of the current Parliament, the move drew criticism from regional parties. Supriya Sule, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP from Baramati constituency in Maharashtra, said, “Sansad TV is now translating the speech of MPs in English, into Hindi while muting the original audio. This new practice is deeply problematic, as it suppresses the MPs voice, denies elected members the right to be heard in their chosen language, and is autocratic.”
Ms. Sule reiterated her criticism on Monday.
DTH options for Sansad TV 1 on Monday HD showed English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu options for Rajya Sabha proceedings, but all audio options did not yet seem operational. According to a promo video put out by Sansad TV on Saturday, the feature will be available on most satellite and cable set-top boxes that allow users to watch a single channel in multiple languages.
Published - July 23, 2024 05:45 am IST
