The BJP is unlikely to renominate at least 10 of its members to key financial committees, including the PAC, amidst speculation that the party is not happy that these members have not been attending m
The BJP is unlikely to renominate at least 10 of its members to key financial committees, including the PAC, amidst speculation that the party is not happy that these members have not been attending meetings of parliamentary panels regularly. Sources said Kirti Azad, Dushyant Singh, Varun Gandhi and Vinod Khanna, among others, might not be repeated by the ruling party in the panels they represent.
Parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had on various occasions reminded party MPs that they need to take parliamentary committee meetings seriously and attend regularly. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly reiterated this during interactions and meetings with MPs.
After internal elections, the BJP will now name a new set of legislators to the committees. The meetings they missed were held between the Monsoon and Winter Sessions of Parliament last year. Parliamentary committees have members from various political parties based on their strength in Parliament.
Meanwhile, the BJP top brass has reiterated that party MPs should publicise the “pro-poor” and “pro-farmer” aspects of the Budget during the Parliament break, asserting that it has created a “sense of victory” among the masses. During the parliamentary party meeting, also attended by Mr Modi, the party’s aggressive nationalist stand on the JNU row also found mention. Mr Naidu spoke about Congress’ “self-goals” and asked members to highlight the BJP’s commitment to “national interest”.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said finance minister Arun Jaitley and Mr Naidu asked MPs to work on a “war footing” to spread the Modi government’s good works and expose the Congress’ “disinformation campaign”.
Taking a dig at the Congress over the Ishrat Jahan case and its leader Ghulam Nabi Azad drawing a parallel between the Hindutva body RSS and terrorist outfit ISIS, Mr Naqvi said the grand old party is practising a “brand new secularism”. He said MPs were also asked to not skip standing committee meetings and the party gave a veiled warning to truant members, saying if they did not attend regularly it would reconsider their membership to these committees.
The BJP meet also criticised an amendment forced by the Congress-led Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in which concern was expressed over a law enacted in some BJP-ruled states that sets a minimum educational qualification to fight local body elections.
