Shashi Tharoor continues as head of IT committee, Harsimrat member of external affairs panel

The Parliamentary panel on Information Technology will continue to be headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose decisions to summon Facebook executives and take up the issue of internet restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir had drawn the ire of BJP members in the committee. Some ruling party MPs had also sought the removal of Tharoor as panel chairman.

On Tuesday, when Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla reconstituted the department-related parliamentary panels, Tharoor was re-nominated as the head of the IT panel.

Former Union minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal — who exited the Union Cabinet and whose party quit the NDA over the new farm laws — was made a member of the external affairs committee.