Jairam Ramesh bows out as chair of Parliamentary panel on environment, reminds incoming chair of 2019 switch to BJP

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday said goodbye to the post of chairperson of the Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change even as he took a swipe at the incoming chair Bhubaneswar Kalita with a 2019 reminder of his crossing over to the BJP. Ramesh chaired the Science & Technology Standing Committee during September 2019-June 2022 and September 2022-June 2024. He is now a member of the panel which was reconstituted on Thursday.

"After four annual terms as Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, it was time to step down. I am still, however, a member of this Committee that covers a very large span of subjects," he said in a post on X.

"I look forward to working with the new Chairperson Bhubaneswar Kalita of the BJP, who was my colleague in the Congress till 11AM of Aug 5, 2019. But that is another story altogether which is unique in our Parliament's history," he said.


"I succeeded him as the Chief Whip of the INC in the Rajya Sabha and he now succeeds me as Chairperson of the Standing Committee!" Ramesh said.

Kalita, who was the Congress's Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha at the time, had resigned on August 5, 2019, from the membership of the Upper House, opposing the Congress's stand on the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

He later had joined the BJP and is currently a member of the Upper House.