New Delhi: Over three months after PM Narendra Modi resumed office for the third term, the logjam over the constitution of Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees is likely to end with the Congress party accepting the government’s offer to chair three panels, including one on external affairs in the Lok Sabha, and another in the Rajya Sabha, ThePrint has learnt.
Apart from external affairs, the Congress is likely to head the Department-related Standing Committees on agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing, and rural development and panchayati raj in the Lok Sabha, while the principal opposition party will get to chair the committee on education, women, children, youth and sports in the Rajya Sabha.
While opposition sources told ThePrint that the government and the Congress have reached a consensus, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha secretariats are yet to notify the chair of the committees till Monday evening. The consensus was arrived at during meetings held last week, the sources added.
There are 16 Department-related Standing Committees in the Lok Sabha, and eight in the Rajya Sabha. These committees, which function through the year, play a crucial role in scrutinising as well as drafting legislations before and after they are tabled in the floor of the House for televised discussions and their eventual enactment.
The opposition sources said that the Congress may have accepted the offer to chair the four committees, but it believed that the government’s rejection of its demand to chair the panels on home affairs, finance and defence was “unfair”.
“These key panels were chaired by the opposition MPs as per convention till 2014. In 2014 and 2019, the BJP government rejected the Congress’s demand saying it lacked the numbers to be considered the principal opposition, but it’s unfair that they refused to do so even this time, when the Congress has significantly more MPs,” said an opposition MP.
With the Congress not having the required 10 per cent of total MPs in the Lok Sabha, it was not eligible for the Leader of Opposition’s post in 2014 and 2019 when it won 44 and 52 seats, respectively. This time, 99 candidates fielded by the Congress emerged as winners, and Rahul Gandhi took charge as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
This time, during the negotiations, the sources said, the Congress pressed for the chairs of the major Lok Sabha committees on external affairs, finance and defence, but the government agreed to offer it the chair of external affairs, apart from panels on agriculture and panchayati raj.
In the case of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress is likely to settle with education, but it had demanded the chair of the panel on the home ministry. The government had initially offered Congress the chairs of either science and technology, or environment and forest.
Other Opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and the Samajwadi Party are also likely to be offered the chair of one committee each. TMC sources told ThePrint that the party has not received any communication from the government so far.
The Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Conduct of States and Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha govern the constitution and functioning of these committees. And, these rules flow from Article 118 of the Constitution: “Each House of Parliament may make rules for regulations, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, its procedure and the conduct of its business”.
Most Bills, after their introduction in the House, are referred to these committees for detailed examination. The speaker and the chairman are authorised to do so based on demands by the MPs. In most cases, the demands are made by the opposition members, who resist attempts by the government, which enjoys a numerical majority in the House, to push through legislation without adequate consultations.
(Edited by Tony Rai)