Ex- chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, and BJP turncoat leader Jyotiraditya Scindia were nominated to key Rajya Sabha house panels.

Scindia became member of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD), while Gogoi was a lone nomination for the Committee on External Affairs.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday nominated them to various parliamentary standing committees, a day after administering the oath.

Earlier, the Rajya Sabha election of Scindia and Gogoi was mired in controversies. While the previous CJI’s nomination to the Upper House by the govt was seen as a blow to the independence of the judiciary, Scindia along side several MLAs from Madhya Pradesh defeated the Congress, resulting in the collapse of Kamal’s government.

Other nominees include Congress members Digvijaya Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge have been nominated to the Urban Development and Commerce Committees respectively. NCP leader Sharad Pawar has been made a member of the Defense Committee.

Former Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha M. Thambi Durai is on the HRD committee, and former vice-chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh is on the panel on agriculture.

Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who was sworn in as a Rajya Sabha member, has been nominated to the committee in Railways.

Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe was appointed as the chairman of the Human Resource Development Committee after the termination of Satyanarayana Jatia’s membership.

In total, Naidu has nominated 65 members in separate committees, including filling some vacancies by sitting members. Ramdas Athawale, being a minister, wasn’t nominated to any committee.

Others nominated in various parliamentary committees include Bhubaneswar Kalita (HRD), G.K. Vasan (HRD), Subrata Bakshi, Ram Chander Jangra, Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Sumer Singh Solanki (all urban development); Priyanka Chaturvedi, Deepak Prakash, Mausam Noor (all commerce); K.T.S. Tulsi, Nabam Rebia, J.M. Lokhandwala, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Muzibulla Khan (all energy); Dinesh Trivedi (home affairs); and Udayan Raje Bhonsle, Narahari Ameen and Phulo Devi Netam (all railways).

Prem Chand Gupta and Rajeev Satav for the committee on defence, Tiruchi Siva, and K.C. Venugopal for the Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture, and the Committee on Coal and Steel to Shibu Soren and Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao.

Background 

Indian Parliament has 24 standing committees of which eight are headed by Rajya Sabha members while the remaining 16 are led by lawmakers from the Lok Sabha. Every member is entitled to be a member of a standing committee.