The BJP has decided to not re-nominate some MPs to the different Parliamentary Standing Committees. Reports about the sitting members not getting a fresh term in the different committees coincided with Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s warning to MPs during the Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday that they should be more regular.

While Naidu spoke to MPs on the importance of being regular and about the ongoing legislative business in the House, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the MPs should go back to their constituencies during the Budget Session recess that begins this week with a “sense of achievement”.

A good Budget Session Jaitley highlighted the fact that not only had the government been able to conduct a good debate on the General Budget and the Railway Budget, it had also got important Bills passed. Significantly, said the Finance Minister, the government had also given a befitting reply to the Opposition on issues related to student unrest in JNU and University of Hyderabad.

Venkaiah chides MPs Meanwhile, party circles were agog with the decision to not nominate certain members to Parliamentary committees they have been part of for the last two years. This was being discussed in the light of the reprimand from Venkaiah Naidu about members not showing adequate concern and interest in committee proceedings. Naidu reportedly told MPs that despite the 2015 Railway Budget being praised last year, the Standing Committee report had adverse comments. This had happened, said the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, as the BJP members in the committee on Railways were not vigilant enough.

BJP members who will not get another term in the Estimates Committee include Vinod Khanna, Darshana Vikram Jadoh, Sanjay Jaiswal, Kirti Azad, Om Birla and Ganesh Singh. The MPs not being re-nominated to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) include SS Ahluwalia, Dushyant Singh and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, while the members from the Committee on Public Undertakings include Varun Gandhi, Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan and Pankaj Choudhary.

All in the family Interestingly, the removal of Dushyant Singh, the son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, from the PAC coincided with the nomination of Abhishek Singh, the son of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, to the same committee. Tuesday was the last day of withdrawal of nominations to the PAC. The term of the current committee ends April 30.

Surprise exclusion Ahluwalia and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Nishank have been replaced by nominated member Richard Hay from Kerala and first-timer MP from Madhya Pradesh Riti Pathak. The removal of Ahluwalia has come as a surprise to many in the BJP. Ahluwalia, one of the BJP’s most active members in the committees, had been pushed mid-way to the committee on Environment and Forests at the height of the debate on the nuclear liability bill because the BJP felt he would be able to put forth the party’s view more forcefully than the MP from Odisha whose term was awarded to him.

Ahluwalia, however, declined to comment on why he had been removed. “I did not ask to be nominated. It was the party’s decision then and it is (not nominating him) the party’s decision now. I have nothing to say,” he told BusinessLine .

Surprisingly, high-profile MP Feroze Varun Gandhi said, “Have I been removed? I was not even aware I was a member of this committee (on public undertakings).”

Others, like Kirti Azad, spoke of being punished for expressing their views.

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