Tharoor slams govt over 'reluctance' to give oppn chairpersonship of key Par committees

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday hit out at the government over its “reluctance” to give the opposition chairpersonship of important parliamentary committees, and said it only reflects its growing insecurity, rather than any accumulation of wisdom or confidence after 10 years.

The remarks by the four-time Thiruvananthapuram MP came over a media report which said the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees have not been constituted because of disagreements between the government and Opposition, on control of these panels.

In a post on X, Tharoor said it is disappointing that the government appears to have no idea of the purpose of Parliamentary committees, which are to provide an additional layer of scrutiny and accountability for the government without the political grandstanding often associated with publicly-televised sessions of Parliament itself.

“To attempt to deny opposition parties any say in matters of national importance and sensitivity, is to defeat the very logic of having such committees at all,” the former Union minister said.

“It is striking that in 2014, when they first came to power, the then BJP government, in keeping with the existing practice, gave the Congress the chairmanship of both the External Affairs Committee (myself) and the Finance Committee (Veerappa Moily), even though we only had 44 MPs ” he said.

“Today, we have 101 MPs and they are reluctant to give us any important committee?” he added.

This suggests a deplorably changed mentality on their part and only reflects their growing insecurity, rather than any accumulation of wisdom or confidence after 10 years in government, Tharoor said.

Incidentally, in the entire history of Parliamentary committees, External Affairs was always headed by an opposition MP until, for the first time in 2019, a BJP MP was asked to take it over, he said.

“What signal does this send to the outside world, where we have always presented a united face on foreign policy?” Tharoor said.

Last month, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a bulletin announcing the constitution of parliamentary committees.

The Public Accounts Committee, Committee on Public Undertakings, Committee on Estimates, Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Joint Committee on Office of Profit and Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes have been constituted without an election this time.

The Lok Sabha speaker is yet to constitute the department-related standing committees which keep an eye on the functioning of various Union ministries and departments.