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Chidambaram made a part of parliamentary panel on home affairs
Congress leader P Chidambaram was appointed as a member of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs on Monday.
Congress leader P Chidambaram, who was appointed as the Union home minister three days after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, has been appointed as a member of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs on Monday as a part of the reshuffle in the eight standing committees of the Rajya Sabha.
The chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, on August 28 nominated Chidambaram to the committee on home affairs to replace Pradip Bhattacharya of the Congress, who retired from the Rajya Sabha on August 18, according to a Rajya Sabha bulletin.
The Upper House has reconstituted these eight department-related standing committees in the last rejig before the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. The remaining 16 panels are under the Lok Sabha, and are yet to be reorganised.
Chidambaram enters the home affairs panel led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brijlal amid the ongoing consultations on the three new laws to replace Indian Penal Code, 1860 the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Evidence Act, 1872. In the first meeting of the panel, many opposition leaders had questioned the necessity to bring three new laws -- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya -- rather than amending the current legislations.
The chairpersons of the other Rajya Sabha panels, too, have remained unchanged, officials said.
The chairs of six major parliamentary committees — home, IT, defence, external affairs, finance and health — are all with the BJP or its allies. Congress leaders Abhishek Singhvi and Jairam Ramesh will continue to head the commerce and environment committees respectively.
