Congress Loses Key Parliamentary Panels

In a departure from the usual practice, BJP MPs will now head the Parliamentary standing committees on finance and external affairs, replacing the Congress MPs on the two crucial panels.

In the 17th Lok Sabha, BJP MPs Jayant Sinha and PP Choudhary will chair the key committee on finance and external affairs respectively. In the previous Lok Sabha, Congress' Veerappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor used to head the two committees. 

BJP's Jayant Sinha appointed as Committee on Finance's Chairperson,BJD's Pinaki Misra&Cong' Digvijaya Singh also appointed as members. BJP's PP Chaudhary appointed as Committee on External Affairs's Chairperson, Congress' P Chidambaram&SP's Jaya Bachchan also appointed as members pic.twitter.com/nKw0nJDtRA

— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2019

Tharoor, who had headed the panel on external affairs committee in the 16th Lok Sabha, will now lead the Standing Committee on Information Technology.

Congress' Shashi Tharoor appointed as Chairperson of Committee on Information Technology, Congress' Karti Chidambaram, BJP's Sunny Deol & TMC's Mahua Moitra also appointed as members. BJP's Satyanarayan Jatia appointed as Chairperson of Committee on Human Resource Development. pic.twitter.com/VyQ9XRitHn

— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2019

However, Tharoor had expressed his dismay over the government's decision to deny the Opposition MP the chairperson’s post in the external affairs panel. He had tweeted: “In the entire history of Parliamentary Standing Committees, the [committee] on External Affairs has always been headed by an Opposition Lok Sabha MP. Our tradition is foreign policy bipartisanship: our political differences stop at the nation’s borders. Dismaying.” 

In the entire history of Parliamentary Standing Committees, the Cmt on External Affairs has always been headed by an Opposition Lok Sabha MP. Our tradition is foreign policy bipartisanship: our political differences stop at the nation's borders. Dismaying.https://t.co/JRTIn207gi

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 10, 2019

While Anand Sharma is the only Congress MP to head a committee on home affairs, Rahul Gandhi has been moved from the parliamentary committee on external affairs to the panel on defence.

Out of 24 standing committees, 13 committees are headed by BJP and four by Congress.

Out of 24 parliamentary committees, chairmanship of 13 committees are with #BJP while 4 are with #Congress. Congress MPs who have got committee chairmanships are - Anand Sharma for Committee on Home Affairs, Shashi Tharoor for IT & Jairam Ramesh for Science and Technology pic.twitter.com/0TEKrYXE9J

— GoNews (@GoNews24x7) September 14, 2019