Cong seeks chairmanship of at least one substantive Parliament panel

New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS): The Congress on Saturday urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to ensure the party as the principal opposition party, it is given the chairmanship of at least one of the four major substantive parliament committees -- Home Affairs, External Affairs, Defence and Finance. The party also said that at least three of these four have traditionally been chaired by the opposition. In a letter to Om Birla, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: "Further to my letter of 21st September 2022 on the government's decision to withdraw the only Departmentally-Related Standing Committee assigned to the Congress Party by seizing the chairmanship of the IT Committee for itself, I write to demand honourable treatment for the Indian National Congress, the principal Opposition party in the Lok Sabha, in keeping with well-established parliamentary conventions." "While I am still awaiting a reply to my letter, it has been made orally clear to me that the decision in respect of the IT Committee will not be reversed. I wish to formally lodge my strong protest against this peremptory action, taken without the slightest justification," Chowdhury said. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury further alleged: "The government is reducing Parliamentary Committees to a farce if they are unprepared to deal with a committee Chair doing his work seriously and professionally, and a committee serving as an independent voice expressing views that may not always be to the taste of the government of the day." He claimed the government is unprepared to deal with a committee chair doing his work seriously and professionally, and a committee serving as an independent voice expressing views that may not always be to the taste of the government of the day. "If the government is determined to retain the IT Committee for the ruling party, the Congress leader said, he would insist that as the principal opposition party, the Congress has every right to ask for one of the major substantive committees -- Home Affairs, External Affairs, Defence or Finance," said Chowdhury in the letter.