Reinstate Tharoor as IT house panel Chief: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to Lok Sabha speaker

Congress Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has requested Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's intervention to reinstate Shashi Tharoor as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology. In a letter to Birla on Wednesday, Chowdhury said that he learnt from the parliamentary affairs minister that Tharoor was divested of the chairmanship during the reconstitution of House panel members and requested the Speaker's intervention.

"As floor leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, I strongly protest this proposed decision to interfere with the distribution of chairpersonships in the middle of a Lok Sabha, which marks yet another instance of this government's scant regard for parliamentary convention, as well as the well-established principles of consultative deliberation and legislative oversight that are the bedrock of any parliamentary democracy," Chowdhury said. Congress' tally in Parliament was cited as one of the reasons for the decision to divest Tharoor of the post.