A crucial meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs which was to examine four key witnesses on the Doklam military buildup by China was cancelled on Thursday, sources said. The meeting, slated for 3 PM was to examine a former Army chief, a former foreign secretary and a former ambassador, besides a cyber expert.
The sources said the meeting was cancelled following a written communication from Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. However, the Parliament Committee on Backward Classes held its meeting as scheduled in the on Thursday noon, the sources said. Lok Sabha sources said the communication was issued after the MPs in the External Affairs Committee requested the Speaker for cancellation of the Committee meeting as the union budget was to be taken up in the Lok Sabha.
Congress member Shashi Tharoor is the chairman of the committee while Rahul Gandhi is a member, besides others.
Sources said the committee was to examine former Army chief Gen Deepak Kapur, satellite imagery expert Col Vinayak Bhat, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran and former ambassador G Parthasarthy.
The satellite imagery expert has written about the accumulation of Chinese build-up on the Doklam plateau, including infrastructure and military build-up, besides helipads at Doklam, the sources said.