BJP keeps tab on member attendance in Parliamentary Committees

By Payal Mehta
New Delhi [India], October 28 : Making a crucial impact on vital and contentious issues discussed in Parliamentary Committees, the Bharatiya Janata Party has kept a tab on the member attendance in these committees.
"A party which has the largest presence in Parliament has to make sure that its MPs participate in Committee meetings that are so vital to the Parliamentary democracy," sources told ANI.
BJP officials often conduct a surprise check during these meetings to see the number of MPs from the saffron party present.
Divulging the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the BJP parliamentarians, the sources said that he has given the message of service to the people and therefore the MPs are required to raise issues pertaining to the public inside the House and even outside.
"PM Modi has given us a simple message that we have been sent to serve the cause of the people and therefore it is important to raise the issues concerning the public and be well prepared," the sources said.
Venkaiah Naidu, when he was the Rajya Sabha Chairman, had set an example for MPs to be regular in Parliamentary meetings, failing which some MPs were also pulled up for poor attendance.
PM Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party has 303 MPs in the Lok Sabha and close to 100 MPs in the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP, a ruling party leading the NDA, also has the chairmanship of several important Standing Committees. Former Finance Minister Jayant Sinha is the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Bhuvaneshwar Kalita chairs the panel for Health and Family Welfare, Sushil Modi chairs the Committee for Law and Justice whereas Brijlal is appointed Chairman of the Committee for Home Affairs.
Earlier this month, Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who went missing on the first list rolled out recently, made their way into the second one.
Another list of Standing Committee chairmen has recently been announced in which Congress MPs have got the chairmanship of two panels - one of Lok Sabha and the other of Rajya Sabha.
Tharoor, who was replaced by Pratap Rao Jadhav for the panel of Information Technology and Communications, is now the chairman of the Lok Sabha-powered Standing Committee for Chemicals and Fertilisers.
Singhvi who was earlier briefly chairing the Home panel after the term of Anand Sharma ended, is now the Chairman of the Standing Committee for Commerce.
These developments come after the government took away the committees like IT and Home from the Congress party in Parliament citing that the party did not have the numbers for these.
The Congress also has another committee in the Rajya Sabha with Jairam Ramesh chairing the Environment panel.
In the recent Committee reorganisation, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav was removed as Health Committee chairman, while TMC also has no panel chief.