How Parliament translates every language

During Winter Session 2025, MPs spoke in their own languages inside Parliament — from Marathi to Tamil — prompting a brief pause in the House.

Transcript

00:00Viewers watching Parliament's Winter Session 2025 couldn't ignore this.

00:07NCP MP Supriya Sule spoke in Marathi.

00:14Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman switched to Tamil.

00:18The Speaker paused the House and briefly stepped in.

00:20This was not a political interruption.

00:22Lok Sabha Speaker Om Bhilla was checking whether the translation was reaching members

00:26clearly.

00:32Parliament allows MPs to speak in any of the 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of

00:37the Constitution.

00:38But for that to work inside one debating chamber, everything depends on real-time interpretation.

00:43Inside the House, trained interpreters sit in soundproof booths and translate speeches live

00:48into Hindi and English while the MPs still speaking.

00:51Members hear this through headphones at their desks.

00:54What has changed in recent years is that this interpretation system is now supported by AI

01:02language tools developed by the Government of India, including Bhashini, the national language

01:07translation platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

01:11Bhashini is designed to handle speech recognition and translation across Indian languages and is

01:16used in Parliament as a support layer alongside human interpreters, not as a replacement.

01:21Because parliamentary speeches are legally and politically sensitive.

01:28The final output still relies on trained professionals.

01:32What played out on television was Parliament doing a live check of whether multilingual AI-assisted

01:36interpretation can actually hold up when the House is in session and real political speech

01:41is unfolding.

01:42This is also a new prerog, right?

01:44No.

01:46Meditation of the Lawyer's Law has written in front of an international expert on the

01:55screen.

01:56No.

01:57No, no.

01:58No.

01:59No, no.

02:00No.

02:01No.

02:02No.

02:03No.

02:04No.

02:05No.

02:07No.