Shashi Tharoor and Digvijaya Singh Take Charge of Top Parliamentary Panels as Congress Reshuffles Committee Leadership
Congress Appoints Tharoor, Singh, Channi, and Ulaka to Head Major Parliamentary Standing Committees
NEW DELHI, Sept 19: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has been appointed to head the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs, while veteran party figure Digvijaya Singh will lead the panel on education, according to sources on Thursday. Additionally, former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will oversee the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, and Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka will chair the committee on rural development.
These appointments reflect the Congress party’s emphasis on social justice, with Channi, a Dalit, and Ulaka, who comes from a tribal background, being selected to head key committees. The party’s leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has been advocating for greater inclusion of marginalized communities in governance and pushing for a more representative party structure.
The Congress has proposed these four leaders to head the department-related parliamentary standing committees it is assigned to, although official notifications are still pending. The Congress will chair the following committees: External Affairs, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in the Lok Sabha, and Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports in the Rajya Sabha.
The appointment of these committee chairs followed extensive negotiations between the government and the opposition. Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh, and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, played pivotal roles in these discussions.
Notably, the Congress will resume chairing the important committee on external affairs after a five-year hiatus. Tharoor had previously led this committee from September 2014 to May 2019. In the last Lok Sabha, the Congress chaired two department-related standing committees in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. Ramesh led the committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, while Abhishek Singhvi headed the panel on Commerce. Tharoor also led the Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers in the Lok Sabha.
This time, Ramesh will be a member of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, a panel he previously chaired. The discussions over the chairmanship of these committees were intense, with significant negotiations over control of key committees such as external affairs, defense, finance, and home affairs.
Department-related standing committees play a crucial role in examining various Union ministries, scrutinizing their budgets, and reviewing bills introduced in Parliament. They also make recommendations for government bills and policy changes on important issues.
The Congress also holds the position of chairperson of the key Public Accounts Committee, with K.C. Venugopal in that role. Most standing committees are under the Lok Sabha Secretariat, although some are serviced by the Rajya Sabha.
