COOMI KAPOOR: Why is it taking so long to set up parliamentary committees? Usually by now, the standing committees should have been formed.

This is a long exercise. We have 24 department-related standing committees—8 are headed by members of the Rajya Sabha, 16 by members of Lok Sabha. This time, there are 302 new members in the House, which is unprecedented. We write to each one of them, seeking their preferences. Then the Lok Sabha Secretariat informs the parties, according to their strength in the House, of their numbers in a particular committee and they have to chose members accordingly. Then there is the issue of who heads the committees and which party. For example, Congress will head six, BJP three.

COOMI KAPOOR: Who heads the Public Accounts Committee?

By convention, the Public Accounts Committee goes to the major Opposition party. The Estimates Committee goes to the ruling party, or the ruling alliance. Same goes for the Public Undertaking Committee.

Subhomoy Bhattacharjee: There was a debate in the last Lok Sabha on whether or not sessions of the committees should be made public. What is your view on it?

I think it will be better if they are not made public. Earlier, proceedings of the two Houses were not televised. But once the proceedings began to be televised, we found that people want to be seen on television back home, raising issues of their constituencies which, in fact, may not be within the jurisdiction of Parliament or the Government of India. The committee system has been good for the parliamentary system. In Parliament, we do take party lines in opposition to personal views. But in these committees, people have cut across party lines and worked for a common purpose.

... contd.