Despite BJP MPs' opposition, Shashi Tharoor to again head Parliamentary panel on IT; Congress MPs to chair 3 committees

Amid strong opposition from the Bhartiya Janata Party, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor will continue as the chairman of the Parliament Standing Committee on Information Technology.

New Delhi:Congress MP Shashi Tharoor will continue as the chairman of the Parliament Standing Committee on Information Technology, amid strong opposition from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). This came as reconstituted different parliamentary panels including the standing committees on Finance, External Affairs and Information Technology announced on Saturday.

Congress MPs have also been retained as chairpersons of three committees. The previous committees' tenure had ended on September 12. Shashi Tharoor's working style as a Chairman of the previous standing committee had been repeatedly criticised by BJP MPs. Nishikant Dubey, a BJP MP, had moved a privilege notice in the Lok Sabha Speaker's office against Tharoor on the issue of discussion on Pegasus Spyware.

Dubey alleged that Tharoor was misusing his power as the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology and violated the rules. TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey, Locket Chatterjee and Tejasvi Surya are some of the members of this committee.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma has also been retained as the Chairperson of the Committee on Home Affairs. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, TMC MP Derek O'Brien, BSP MP Satish Chandra Misra, BJP MPs Dilip Ghosh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal and Kirron Kher are some of the members of this committee.

In addition to this, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has again been appointed as Chairperson of Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests and Climate Change. AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, RJD MP Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha and BJP MPs Sakshi Maharaj, Anantkumar Hedge, Anurag Sharma have been named as members of this panel.

Notably, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also retained his place as a member of the Committee on Defence, which will be headed by BJP MP Jual Oram. In the reconstituted committees, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav has been appointed as Chairperson of the Committee on Health and Family Welfare. Congress MP AK Antony and BJP lawmaker Suresh Prabhu and Subramanian Swamy are part of this committee.

BJP MP PP Chaudhary has again been appointed as Chairperson of Committee on External Affairs with Congress MPs P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibbal, SP's Jaya Bachchan, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut and BJP MP and former union minister Prakash Javadekar being committee members. BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi has been made the Chairperson of the Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. The members of this committee include former Union Minister and BJP MP Ramesh Pokhariyal 'Nishank', Mahesh Jethmalani, TMCs' Kalyan Banerjee and Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda.

BJP MP Jayant Sinha also retained his post as Chairperson of the Committee on Finance. Former Prime Minister and Congress MP Dr Manmohan Singh, SAD's Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad have been named as the committee members. Dr Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe has been appointed as Chairperson of the Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports. TMC MP Sushmita Dev, BJP MPs Balak Nath and Akhilesh Prasad Singh are some of the members of this committee.

TRS MP K Keshava Rao will be heading the Committee on Industry. BJP MP PC Gaddigoudar will continue as the Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture. Samajwadi Party MP Mulayam Singh Yadav, MDMK MP Vaiko and Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa have been appointed as the committee members.

Janata Dal (United) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh has also retained his post as Chairperson of Committee on Energy in which BJP MP Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi, SP MP Akhilesh Yadav and Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla are named as committee members.

ANI