Congress party on Saturday accused the government of deviating from the 'tradition' after BJP Lok Sabha MP PP Chaudhary was appointed as chairperson of the standing committee on External Affairs.
Taking to Twitter, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor termed Chaudhary's appointment as another blow to country's image and international reputation.
"It's official: Government has decided to end the tradition of the leading Opposition party chairing the External Affairs Committee. Apparently a BJP MP will now hold the BJP Government accountable instead. One more blow to our soft power, image and international reputation as a mature democracy," he tweeted.
The government on Friday appointed members and Chairpersons of a number of parliamentary committees. In the newly constituted committees, BJP Lok Sabha MP PP Chaudhary has been designated as chairperson of the Committee on External Affairs.
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Jayadev Galla, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, Congress MPs Preneet Kaur, P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal are part of the committee. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were also appointed as members of this committee.
Congress will be heading three Parliamentary committees in which Tharoor has been appointed as Chairperson of Committee on Information Technology.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma and Congress MP Jairam Ramesh have been appointed as Chairpersons of committees on Home Affairs and Congress Science and Technology, Environment and Forests respectively.