VP Jagdeep Dhankhar attaches personal staff to parliamentary committees, draws Opposition criticism

Dhankhar defended the unprecedented decision, claiming that he had placed knowledgeable people to assist the MPs and that some of them were IAS, IFS and experts. He explained that his staff has been attached after many panel members or chairpersons requested him to improve the functioning and performance of the panels.

"I got input from number of members and chairmen. They told me to do something to improve the panel's productivity," Dhankhar said.

Per a Times of India report, Dhankhar condemned the "false narrative" claiming that the chairman appointed "his own members."

"A narrative has been set afloat by sections of media that the chairman has appointed his own members to the committees. Has anyone even checked the facts? Committees comprise members of Parliament. It is their exclusive domain. I am terribly upset and concerned what our editors are doing. Can you engage in such kind of narrative which is based on falsehood? And you don't care to check the truth. I have acted because the chairmen and members had come up to me and I'm doing it after multi-layered consultations," Dhankhar added.

Members of the Opposition, however, have challenged the Vice President's decision and criticised him for not consulting them.

Congress’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh said that he was not consulted despite being the chairman of a standing committee and questioned the "logic and necessity" behind the move.

"The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha has said that his controversial move to have his staff attached to various Committees was after consultations with the respective Chairpersons. I chair a Standing Committee and I can categorically say I wasn’t consulted at all," Ramesh tweeted.

Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha MP and CPI general secretary D Raja has said it was “violative of established Parliamentary procedures.”

RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha asked, “What is the rationale behind such a move, which fundamentally goes against the very idea and structure of standing committees?”

Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari tweeted: “VP is Chairperson of Council of States Ex-Officio. He is not a Member of House like Vice Chairperson or panel of Vice Chairpersons. How can he appoint personal staff on Parliamentary Standing Committees? Would this not tantamount to institutional subversion?”

Former Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary told The Indian Express that there is no rule under which the Speaker or the Chairman can appoint their personal staff to assist the committees. “Personal staff of the Speaker or the Chairman are not part of Parliamentary secretariats. So far, no such appointments have been made,” Achary said.