No Confidence Motion: PM Modi Visible for 84% of His Speech, Rahul Gandhi 42%

At least 3 Opposition parties have alleged that the camera often doesn't focus on them while they are speaking.

Opposition parties have alleged that the camera doesn't focus on them when they speak. 

(Namita Chauhan/The Quint)

One of the most curious allegations made by the Opposition during the No Confidence Motion against the Narendra Modi government, was that the Sansad TV camera doesn't focus on non-NDA MPs when they speak as compared to NDA MPs.

Several Congress leaders, DMK leader Kanimozhi and Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, all made this accusation.

But how true is this claim? While we cannot say about all the speakers, we went through the speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and calculated the time for which the camera was focused on each of them and the duration for which it focused elsewhere

Here's what we found.

PM Modi's Speech

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to close to two hours and 12 minutes. Within this, for a minute there was a brief intervention by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

So not including that, the PM's speech was 131 minutes.

Out of this, the camera focused on the PM for a little less than 110 minutes and away from him for about 21 minutes.

Even within those 21 minutes, a lot of it was to show BJP MPs thumping the desk to cheer him.

In percentage terms, the camera focused on PM Modi for 84 percent of the time during his speech.

Rahul Gandhi's Speech

In contrast, for over 50 percent of Rahul Gandhi's speech, the focus of the camera was not on him.

His speech lasted 36 minutes, out of which the camera focused on him for about 15 minutes and 30 seconds and away from him for a little over 20 minutes.

In percentage terms, the camera focused on Gandhi for 42 percent of the time and away from him for 58 percent of the time.

For the time it was not on him, it was mostly focussed on the Speaker and briefly on Kiren Rijiju when he spoke about Manipur. 

The longest time that the camera was on Rahul Gandhi during his speech has been - 54 seconds, i.e. under a minute. 

The longest time that the camera was away from him was for 5 minutes 20 seconds, as an uproar followed Rahul's remarks on Manipur. 

This means that at least on the 'Modi vs Rahul Gandhi' metric, there may be some truth to the Opposition's allegation.

However, we cannot say this decisively unless we look at speeches by each of the MPs who spoke during the No Confidence Motion.