NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday constituted Parliamentary Friendship Groups with more than 60 countries, comprising several prominent opposition members, including those suspended from the Lower House recently for alleged ‘unruly behaviour.’
The decision comes ahead of a no-confidence motion by the Opposition to remove him from office, alleging partisan conduct in the House.
Prominent opposition leaders such as Shashi Tharoor, P Chidambaram, Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), K Kanimozhi (DMK), Derek O’Brien, Abhishek Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Arvind Sawant (SS-UBT), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party) will chair the parliamentary groups, each having 11 members.
Senior BJP leaders such as Ravi Shankar Prasad, Baijayant Panda, Nishikant Dubey, and Anurag Thakur have also been appointed as chairpersons of the groups.
Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde and JD(U) member Sanjay Jha have also been nominated as chairpersons.
Among the suspended Congress Lok Sabha members, Manickam Tagore, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Hibi Eden, Amarinder Singh Raj Warring, Prashant Padole, Dean Kuriakose, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, and CPM member S Venkatesan have been made members of various groups.
Speaker Birla is likely to constitute more such groups, which are co-terminus with the tenure of the Lok Sabha.
“The move reflects a conscious effort by the Indian Parliament to deepen dialogue and exchanges with legislatures across continents and to complement traditional diplomacy with sustained parliamentary interaction,” Birla said.
The seven delegations articulated India’s stand on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, rising above ideological differences.
Among the BJP leaders, Bhartuhari Mahtab will lead the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Israel, Baijayant Panda (US), Nishikant Dubey (Russia), Anurag Thakur (EU Parliament Brussels), and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, and Sudhanshu Trivedi (Saudi Arabia), among others.
Among Congress leaders, P Chidambaram will lead the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Italy, Akhilesh Yadav (Japan), Shashi Tharoor (France), Manish Tewari (Australia) Kodikunnil Suresh (Qatar), Asaduddin Owaisi (Oman), and K C Venugopal (Portugal) among others.
Under Speaker Om Birla’s leadership, Parliament has taken a more active role in international fora.
Priyanka made member of Friendship Group for Japan
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been made a member of the Friendship Group for Japan. Similarly, Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra is part of the group for Portugal led by Venugopal. DMK leaders T R Baalu, Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva will lead the friendship groups for Malaysia, Greece and Bahrain, respectively. The idea is to allow the lawmakers to speak directly to their counterparts abroad, share legislative experience, a Lok Sabha Secretariat statement said.