Dokalam, Rohingya issue to be examined by parliamentary panel

NEW DELHI: The 73-day Dokalam standoff and the Rohingya issue will be examined by a parliamentary panel on external affairs headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

The panel, which also includes Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, will deliberate on a number of key foreign policy issues at its next meeting which is likely to be held next month, one of its members said.

Sino-Indian relations including the border situation and the Dokalam stand-off, relations with Myanmar and the Rohingya issue are among subjects selected by the panel for deliberations, according to the Lok Sabha bulletin.

Voting rights to NRIs, the crisis of the European Union in the wake of Brexit and its implications for India and performance of passport issuance system including issuance of e-passport are topics for discussions shortlisted by the panel for its year-long agenda.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had in July briefed the panel on the Dokalam stand-off.

India and China had in August struck a deal to pull back from their most serious face-off in two decades. The development had come a week before the BRICS summit in China which was attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.