BJP MPs Replace Tharoor and Moily As Heads of Parliamentary Panels

Shashi Tharoor has now been made the head of the standing committee on information technology.

New Delhi: Two crucial parliamentary panels, the standing committees on finance and external affairs, which were headed by Congress MPs in the previous Lok Sabhas have now been replaced by BJP MPs.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat updated the details of parliament’s standing committees for the newly constituted 17th Lok Sabha last night. BJP MPs Jayant Sinha and P.P. Choudhary will head the panels on finance and external affairs respectively.

In the previous Lok Sabha, Congress’ Veerappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor used to head the two committees.

Moily lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Tharoor, who retained his Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in the last general elections, has now been made the head of the standing committee on information technology.

Also read: Congress to Hold Countrywide Agitations Against Economic Slowdown

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi who was a member of the panel on external affairs has now been moved to the parliamentary panel on defence, which is headed by Jual Oram.

TMC’s Derek O’Brien, who was chairing the committee on transport, tourism and culture has been replaced by erstwhile TDP leader T.G. Venkatesh, who recently joined BJP.

O’Brien is now a member of the panel on human resource development, which BJP’s Satya Narayan Jatiya continues to head.

‘Hindu Pakistan’ Comment: Arrest Warrant Against Shashi Tharoor

Chief metropolitan magistrate Dipanjan Sen issued a bailable warrant against Tharoor on a petition by lawyer Sumit Chowdhury.

New Delhi: A Kolkata court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for a statement he made in July 2018 that the BJP’s electoral victory could turn Indian into a “Hindu Pakistan”.

Tharoor’s statement, made at an event in Thiruvananthapuram, had sparked off a controversy, with the saffron party demanding an apology from the Congress leader and Rahul Gandhi. His office in the city was also attacked by BJP activists.

On Tuesday, chief metropolitan magistrate Dipanjan Sen issued a bailable warrant against Tharoor on a petition by lawyer Sumit Chowdhury, who claimed the statement promoted disharmony.

The matter will be heard again on September 24.