BJP MPs head most panels, outnumber opposition in committees

NEW DELHI: The constitution of the much-awaited Department-Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) gives little hope to the opposition in holding the government accountable in the forthcoming sessions as most of the important panels will be headed by BJP MPs and the ruling party members will be in majority in all of the 24 DRSCs.
In the last Parliament session, the opposition alleged that the government was passing crucial bills without scrutiny by the standing or select committees. Bills seeking to ban instant triple talaq, amend Motor Vehicles Act, Aadhaar Act and the Indian Medical Council Act were passed after just a day’s discussion.
A close look at the composition of the new DRSCs shows the opposition will not have much say. Called “mini-Parliament”, these committees are formed keeping the strength of various parties in mind. With BJP having a brute majority — 303 seats out of 545 in Lok Sabha — it will easily outnumber the opposition in every committee. Each of the 24 committees will have 21 members from the Lower House and 10 from the Upper House.
In the Rajya Sabha too, BJP is comfortably placed with 78 members in a house of 245. Defections, resignations and re-election (in some cases) on BJP tickets of some opposition members from various parties have further weakened the ruling party’s opponents.
In the 16th Lok Sabha, the Modi government often rued that important bills were getting stuck in the Rajya Sabha or were indefinitely delayed by standing or select committees of the Upper House.
Chairpersonship of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs is the only significant panel that Congress gets to head this time, with party’s Anand Sharma replacing P Chidambaram. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh as head of the science, technology, environment and forest panel would be active as he knows the subject well. Same goes for his party colleague Shashi Tharoor who will now head the information technology committee.
External affairs committee, much like the Public Accounts Committee, is conventionally headed by an MP from the main opposition. But Tharoor has been moved out and replaced by PP Chaudhary, who is a law expert. Similarly, the key finance standing committee will now be headed by BJP’s Jayant Sinha. Veteran Congress MP M Veerappa Moily chaired this panel and an MP from the opposition would have made the going tough for the government at a time when it is battling slowdown.
Too much is being made of Rahul Gandhi being moved from home to defence. But he was never very active in the committee meetings.
Trinamool has come out a loser in the new committees. Sudip Bandopadhyay headed the railways standing committee but it will now be chaired by BJP’s Radha Mohan Singh. BJP has also taken away transport, tourism and culture committee from Trinamool, with TG Venkatesh, who till a few months back was with TDP before switching over to BJP, replacing Derek O’Brien.
Current Status of Mini-Parliament
There are 24 Department-Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) — 16 from Lok Sabha and 8 from Rajya Sabha. Each committee will have 21 MPs from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. In Rajya Sabha, opposition parties will head five of the eight DRSCs. Earlier, BJP headed four but this time it would head only three. In Lok Sabha, BJP MPs will head 10 DRSCs
New Lok Sabha DRSC Heads
PC Gaddigoudar replaces Hukmdev Narayan Yadav (both BJP)
Kanimozhi (DMK) replaces Anandrao Adsul (SS)
Rakesh Singh replaces Chintamani Malviya (both BJP)
Jual Oram replaces Kalraj Mishra (both BJP)
Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JDU) replaces K Haribabu (BJP)
PP Chaudhary (BJP) replaces Shashi Tharoor (Cong)
Jayant Sinha (BJP) replaces M Veerappa Moily (Cong)
Sudip Bandopadhyay (TMC) replaces JC Divakar Reddy (TDP)
Shashi Tharoor (Cong) replaces Anurag Thakur (BJP)
Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) replaces Kirit Sommaiya (BJP)
Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP) replaces Pralhad Joshi
Radha Mohan Singh (BJP) replaces Sudip Bandopadhyay (TMC)
Pratap Rao Jadhav (SS) replaces PV Venugopal (AIADMK)
Rama Devi (BJP) replaces Ramesh Bais (BJP)
Jagadambika Pal (BJP) replaces Pinaki Misra (BJD)
Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP) replaces Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP)
Of the 8 Rajya Sabha DRSCs, 5 have seen changes
V Vijaysai Reddy (YSRCP) replaces Naresh Gujral (SAD)
Anand Sharma (Cong) replaces P Chidambaram (Cong)
K Keshav Rao (TRS) replaces RCP Singh (JDU)
Jairam Ramesh (Cong) replaces Anand Sharma (Cong)
TG Venkatesh (BJP) replaces Derek O’Brien (TMC)
Ram Gopal Yadav ( ), Satyanarain Jatiya ( ) and Bhupendra Yadav ( ) will continue as chairperson of these DRSCs