It was a miss that could not have gone unnoticed. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today summoned Prasar Bharati CEO K.S. Sarma and Doordarshan director general Navin Kumar for not having telecasted the Question Hour session in Parliament — that too, without any prior communication on the issue. What appalled the Parliament Secretariat was that DD National unilaterally blacked out yesterday’s Question Hour proceedings without any prior notice or intimation to the Speaker. ‘‘It was pointed out to the Speaker, and he immediately called the Prasar Bharati CEO and Director General DD for an explanation,’’ sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat said. Chatterjee, who has been trying to make the proceeding more transparent and accessible to the common man, has even allowed Zero Hour to be telecast live on DD. Though Sarma and Kumar, who met the Speaker this morning, apologised for the slip, sources in the Parliament said, the apology has been accepted on the ground that it would not be repeated. The reason cited by the public broadcaster, the sources said, was a prior contract that DD has with the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) to telecast the India-South Africa Test match (being playing in Kolkata) Live on the same channel. The Parliamentary proceeding — even the mandatory Question Hour session — had to be taken off the National Network to accommodate the telecast of the highly-popular match.
