Committee on External Affairs

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Committee on External Affairs
Department Related Standing Committee
18th Lok Sabha
CountryFlag of India.svg  India
Leadership
Chairperson Shashi Tharoor
Chairperson party Indian National Congress
Appointer Lok sabha Speaker
Structure
Seats31
Lok Sabha  : 21
Rajya Sabha  : 10

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs is a department related standing committee (DRSC) of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the purpose of legislative oversight of the foreign policy, and decision making of the Ministry of External Affairs. It is one of the 24 DRSCs that have been mandated with the task of ministry specific oversight.

Contents

The committee is currently chaired by MP Shashi Tharoor since 26 September 2024. [1]

Current Composition

Each of the committees have 31 members – 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. [2] These members are to be nominated by the Speaker of Lok Sabha or the Chairman of Rajya Sabha respectively. The term of office of these committees does not exceed one year. These committees are serviced either by Lok Sabha secretariat or the Rajya Sabha secretariat, depending on who has appointed the chairman of that committee.

Following are the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. [3]

Keys:   BJP (14)   INC (4)   SP (2)   AITC (2)   CPIM (2)   DMK (1)   SS(UBT) (1)   YSRCP (1)   RJD (1)   IUML (1)   AIMIM (1) = 31 members

Party-wise membership of Standing Committee on Defence
  1. BJP (45.16%)
  2. INC (12.9%)
  3. SP (6.45%)
  4. AITC (6.45%)
  5. CPIM (6.45%)
  6. DMK (3.22%)
  7. SS(UBT) (3.22%)
  8. YSRCP (3.22%)
  9. RJD (3.22%)
  10. IUML (3.22%)
  11. AIMIM (3.22%)

Chairpersons

Chairpersons of the committee (1993-till date)

Sr. No.NameTerm of officeTermsPolitical party

(Alliance)

1 Buta Singh 1993-952 INC
2No Public records found1995-983
3 Kamal Chaudhary 1998-991 INC
4 Laxminarayan Pandey 1999-20023 BJP
5 Madan Lal Khurana 2002-042
6 Balasaheb Vikhe Patil 2004-084 INC
7 Satpal Maharaj 2008-114
8 Raj Babbar 2012-142
9 Maj Gen. BC Khanduri (Retd.) 2014-173 BJP
10 Kalraj Mishra 2017-192 -->
11 P. P. Chaudhary [2] 2021–20241
12 Shashi Tharoor 2024 – present INC

Reports published

As part of its oversight process, the committee has published quite a number of reports over the course of its existence. The committee has published a total of 87 reports from 1993 to 2010. Out of these, 18 are reports on Demands for Grants (DFGs), 25 reports on subjects taken up by the committee, 5 reports on bills referred to the committee and 36 are reports on action taken by the government on corresponding reports of the committee.

In March 2023, the committee in its Demand for Grants (2023–24) report, criticized the ministry for being "most short-staffed" and under-budgeted. The committee highlighted that The total strength of 4,888 is distributed across different cadres of the Ministry such as the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), IFS General Cadre, IFS Group B, Stenographers Cadre, Interpreters Cadre, Legal and Treaties Cadre, among others. The cadre strength of Indian Foreign Service Officers is only 1,011, just 22.5 percent of the total strength. Out of IFS 'A' cadre, 667 are posted at the Missions abroad and 334 are manning the headquarters in Delhi, which currently has 57 divisions. [4] The committee also highlighted that the ministry “remains one amongst the least funded central ministries” as its actual annual spending has been around 0.4% of the total budgetary allocation of the government since 2020-21. [5]

Lok SabhaTenureDemands for Grants(DFGs)SubjectsBillsATRsTotal Reports Presented
10th Lok Sabha 1991–9632–38
11th Lok Sabha 1996–972-226
12th Lok Sabha 1998–9924-28
13th Lok Sabha 1999–044411221
14th Lok Sabha 2004–0951421536
15th Lok Sabha 2009–1421-25
16th Lok Sabha 2014–2019
17th Lok Sabha 2019-2024

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chairperson of the committee for the current year.
  1. ↑ National Informatics Centre. "Dr. Shashi Tharoor". Digital Sansad. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Parliament Panels Reconstituted, Congress Leaders Retained As Chairmen". NDTV.com. 10 October 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  3. ↑ "Committee on External Affairs : Loksabha". loksabhaph.nic.in. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "'Indian diplomatic service most short-staffed compared to many other countries': Parliamentary panel". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  5. ↑ "Parliamentary panel for ramping up manpower and funding for MEA". Hindustan Times. 21 March 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
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