Russia-Ukraine war: Parliamentary panel to examine New Delhi's response

The Russia-Ukraine armed conflict and India's response has come under parliamentary standing committee scrutiny.

The parliamentary standing committee on external affairs will examine the Russia-Ukraine conflict, its global impact and India's response. The 30-member reconstituted parliamentary panel, headed by BJP member of Parliament PP Chaudhary, has chosen the armed conflict as one of the subjects for examination. India has adopted a neutral stand towards the conflict and has abstained from successive votes in the UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council that condemned Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The numbers of the ruling coalition and the opposition are evenly placed in the 30-member committee - the opposition parties have 15 MPs; NDA has 15 and there is one vacancy. This could lead to interesting debates within the committee.


The government has received flak from other countries for continuing to buy oil from Russia. Earlier this week, petroleum minister Hardeep Puri defended India's purchases stating that India only bought 0.2% of Russian oil. "We still buy a quarter of what Europe buys in one afternoon," he had said in an interview to CNN.