The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs is a department related standing committee (DRSC) of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the purpose of legislative oversight of the foreign policy, and decision making of the Ministry of External Affairs. It is one of the 24 DRSCs that have been mandated with the task of ministry specific oversight.
The committee is currently chaired by MP Shashi Tharoor since 26 September 2024.
Current Composition Each of the committees have 31 members – 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. These members are to be nominated by the Speaker of Lok Sabha or the Chairman of Rajya Sabha respectively. The term of office of these committees does not exceed one year. These committees are serviced either by Lok Sabha secretariat or the Rajya Sabha secretariat, depending on who has appointed the chairman of that committee.
Following are the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.
Keys: = 31 members
Lok Sabha members +21 Members from 18th Lok Sabha; tenure – September 2024 – 2025Sr. No.Name Constituency, stateParty1Shashi TharoorThiruvananthapuram, Kerala 2Deepender Singh HoodaRohtak, Haryana3Brijendra Singh OlaJhunjhunu, Rajasthan4Praniti ShindeSolapur, Maharashtra5D. K. Aruna Mahabubnagar, Telangana 6Vijay BaghelDurg, Chhattisgarh7Mitesh Rameshbhai PatelAnand, Gujarat8Arun GovilMeerut, Uttar Pradesh9Kripanath MallahKarimganj, Assam10Pradeep Kumar PanigrahyBerhampur, Odisha11Ravi Shankar PrasadPatna Sahib, Bihar12Aparajita SarangiBhubaneswar, Odisha13Bansuri SwarajNew Delhi, Delhi14Sanatan PandeyBallia, Uttar Pradesh 15Akshay YadavFirozabad, Uttar Pradesh 16Abhishek BanerjeeDiamond Harbour, West Bengal 17Arvind SawantMumbai South, Maharashtra 18Y. S. Avinash ReddyKadapa, Andhra Pradesh 19Kani K. NavasRamanathapuram, Tamil Nadu 20Asaduddin OwaisiHyderabad, Telangana 21Vacant
Rajya Sabha members +10 Members from the Rajya Sabha: tenure – September 2024 – 2025Sr. No.Name State LegislatureParty1 Kiran ChoudhryHaryanaBJP2K. LaxmanUttar Pradesh3Sudhanshu TrivediUttar Pradesh4Kavita PatidarMadhya Pradesh5Ratanjit Pratap Narain SinghUttar Pradesh6John BrittasKeralaCPIM7A. A. Rahim8Sagarika GhoseWest BengalAITC9R. GirirajanTamil NaduDMK10Amarendra Dhari SinghBiharRJD
Chairpersons Chairpersons of the committee (1993–present)
Sr. No.NameTerm of officeYearsPolitical party (Alliance)1Buta Singh1993–952 INC2No Public records found1995–9833Kamal Chaudhary1998–991 INC4Laxminarayan Pandey1999–20023BJP5Madan Lal Khurana2002–0426Balasaheb Vikhe Patil2004–084INC7Satpal Maharaj2008–1148Raj Babbar2012–1429Maj Gen. BC Khanduri (Retd.) 2014–173BJP10Kalraj Mishra2017–19211P. P. Chaudhary2021–2024112Shashi Tharoor2024–present1INC
Reports published
As part of its oversight process, the committee has published quite a number of reports over the course of its existence. The committee has published a total of 87 reports from 1993 to 2010. Out of these, 18 are reports on Demands for Grants (DFGs), 25 reports on subjects taken up by the committee, 5 reports on bills referred to the committee and 36 are reports on action taken by the government on corresponding reports of the committee.
In March 2023, the committee in its Demand for Grants (2023–24) report, criticized the ministry for being "most short-staffed" and under-budgeted. The committee highlighted that The total strength of 4,888 is distributed across different cadres of the Ministry such as the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), IFS General Cadre, IFS Group B, Stenographers Cadre, Interpreters Cadre, Legal and Treaties Cadre, among others. The cadre strength of Indian Foreign Service Officers is only 1,011, just 22.5 percent of the total strength. Out of IFS 'A' cadre, 667 are posted at the Missions abroad and 334 are manning the headquarters in Delhi, which currently has 57 divisions. The committee also highlighted that the ministry “remains one amongst the least funded central ministries” as its actual annual spending has been around 0.4% of the total budgetary allocation of the government since 2020-21.
Lok Sabha Tenure Demands for Grants(DFGs) Subjects Bills ATRs Total Reports Presented10th Lok Sabha 1991–96 3 2 – 3 811th Lok Sabha 1996–97 2 – 2 2 612th Lok Sabha 1998–99 2 4 – 2 813th Lok Sabha 1999–04 4 4 1 12 2114th Lok Sabha 2004–09 5 14 2 15 3615th Lok Sabha 2009–14 2 1 – 2 516th Lok Sabha 2014–2019 17th Lok Sabha 2019–2024
See also
17th Lok Sabha Estimates Committee Committee on Public Undertakings Public Accounts Committee (India) Standing Committee on Finance
References
External links Committee on External Affairs on Lok Sabha Website