Committee on External Affairs

Committee of Indian Parliament for legislative oversight

Committee on External AffairsDepartment Related Standing Committee

18th Lok Sabha
Country|  India
Leadership
Chairperson| Shashi Tharoor
Chairperson party| Indian National Congress
Appointer| Lok sabha Speaker
Structure
Seats| 31
Lok Sabha : 21
Rajya Sabha : 10
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* * *

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* Utpal Kumar Singh

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* Jagdeep Dhankhar

* * *

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* Harivansh Narayan Singh

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* Mallikarjun Kharge (INC)

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* * *

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Ministry of External Affairs

* Cabinet Minister

* S. Jaishankar

* * *

* Minister of State

* Kirti Vardhan Singh
* Pabitra Margherita

* * *

* Foreign Secretary

* Vinay Mohan Kwatra

* * *

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* * *

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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.[1]

## Current Composition

[edit]

Each of the committees have 31 members – 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.[2] 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.[3]

Keys:   BJP (14)   INC (4)   SP (2)   AITC (2)   CPIM (2)   DMK (1)   SS(UBT) (1)   YSRCP (1)   RJD (1)  IUML (1)   AIMIM (1) = 31 members

Party-wise membership of Standing Committee on Defence

1. BJP (45.16%)
2. INC (12.9%)
3. SP (6.45%)
4. AITC (6.45%)
5. CPIM (6.45%)
6. DMK (3.22%)
7. SS(UBT) (3.22%)
8. YSRCP (3.22%)
9. RJD (3.22%)
10. IUML (3.22%)
11. AIMIM (3.22%)

### Lok Sabha members

[edit]

21 Members from 18th Lok Sabha; tenure – September 2024 – 2025  Sr. No.  | Portrait  | Name  | Constituency, state  | Party

|
|
|
|

1  |  | Shashi Tharoor[a] | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala |  | INC
2  |  | Deepender Singh Hooda | Rohtak, Haryana
3  |  | Brijendra Singh Ola | Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan
4  |  | Praniti Shinde | Solapur, Maharashtra
5  |  | D. K. Aruna | Mahabubnagar, Telangana |  | BJP
6  |  | Vijay Baghel | Durg, Chhattisgarh
7  |  | Mitesh Rameshbhai Patel | Anand, Gujarat
8  |  | Arun Govil | Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
9  |  | Kripanath Mallah | Karimganj, Assam
10  |  | Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy | Berhampur, Odisha
11  |  | Ravi Shankar Prasad | Patna Sahib, Bihar
12  |  | Aparajita Sarangi | Bhubaneswar, Odisha
13  |  | Bansuri Swaraj | New Delhi, Delhi
14  |  | Sanatan Pandey | Ballia, Uttar Pradesh |  | SP
15  |  | Akshay Yadav | Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh
16  |  | Abhishek Banerjee | Diamond Harbour, West Bengal |  | AITC
17  |  | Arvind Sawant | Mumbai South, Maharashtra |  | SS(UBT)
18  |  | Y. S. Avinash Reddy | Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh |  | YSRCP
19  |  | Kani K. Navas | Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu |  | IUML
20  |  | Asaduddin Owaisi | Hyderabad, Telangana |  | AIMIM
21  | Vacant

### Rajya Sabha members

[edit]

10 Members from the Rajya Sabha: tenure – September 2024 – 2025  Sr. No.  | Name  | State Legislature  | Party

|
|
|

1  | Kiran Choudhry | Haryana | BJP |
2  | K. Laxman | Uttar Pradesh
3  | Sudhanshu Trivedi | Uttar Pradesh
4  | Kavita Patidar | Madhya Pradesh
5  | Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh | Uttar Pradesh
6  | John Brittas | Kerala | CPIM |
7  | A. A. Rahim
8  | Sagarika Ghose | West Bengal | AITC |
9  | R. Girirajan | Tamil Nadu | DMK |
10  | Amarendra Dhari Singh | Bihar | RJD |

## Chairpersons

[edit]

### Chairpersons of the committee (1993-till date)

[edit]

Sr. No.  | Name  | Term of office  | Terms  | Political party

(Alliance)

|
|
|
|

1  | Buta Singh | 1993-95  | 2  | INC |
2  | No Public records found | 1995-98 | 3 |  |
3  | Kamal Chaudhary | 1998-99  | 1  | INC |
4  | Laxminarayan Pandey | 1999-2002  | 3  | BJP |
5  | Madan Lal Khurana | 2002-04  | 2
6  | Balasaheb Vikhe Patil | 2004-08  | 4  | INC |
7  | Satpal Maharaj | 2008-11  | 4
8  | Raj Babbar | 2012-14  | 2
9  | Maj Gen. BC Khanduri (Retd.) | 2014-17  | 3  | BJP |
10  | Kalraj Mishra | 2017-19  | 2 -->
11  | P. P. Chaudhary[2] | 2021–2024  | 1
12  | Shashi Tharoor | 2024 – present  |  | INC |

## Reports published

[edit]

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.[4] 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.[5]

Lok Sabha | Tenure | Demands for Grants(DFGs) | Subjects | Bills | ATRs | Total Reports Presented

|
|
|
|
|
|

10th Lok Sabha | 1991–96 | 3 | 2 | – | 3 | 8
11th Lok Sabha | 1996–97 | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | 6
12th Lok Sabha | 1998–99 | 2 | 4 | - | 2 | 8
13th Lok Sabha | 1999–04 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 21
14th Lok Sabha | 2004–09 | 5 | 14 | 2 | 15 | 36
15th Lok Sabha | 2009–14 | 2 | 1 | - | 2 | 5
16th Lok Sabha | 2014–2019 |  |  |  |  |
17th Lok Sabha | 2019-2024 |  |  |  |  |

## See also

[edit]

* India portal

* 17th Lok Sabha
* Estimates Committee
* Committee on Public Undertakings
* Public Accounts Committee (India)
* Standing Committee on Finance

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Chairperson of the committee for the current year.

1. ^ National Informatics Centre. "Dr. Shashi Tharoor". Digital Sansad. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
2. ^ a b "Parliament Panels Reconstituted, Congress Leaders Retained As Chairmen". NDTV.com. 10 October 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
3. ^ "Committee on External Affairs : Loksabha". loksabhaph.nic.in. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
4. ^ "'Indian diplomatic service most short-staffed compared to many other countries': Parliamentary panel". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
5. ^ "Parliamentary panel for ramping up manpower and funding for MEA". Hindustan Times. 21 March 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.

## External links

[edit]

* Committee on External Affairs on Lok Sabha Website

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