CABINET COMMITTEES
While the allocation of portfolios is likely to be known soon, it is expected that the BJP — with 240 seats in Lok Sabha — will not cede the four big portfolios of Home, Defence, Finance, and External Affairs to its alliance partners, so it is able to retain its hold on the Cabinet Committees.
LIST OF IMPORTANT CABINET COMMITTEES:
- Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS)
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and
- Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA)
WHEN ARE CABINET COMMITTEES FORMED?
Once the Union Cabinet is sworn in and ministerial portfolios are allocated, the next step would be the formation of the high-profile Cabinet committees.
WHO SETS UP THESE COMMITTEES?
The Prime Minister sets up these committees with selected members of the Cabinet and assigns specific functions to these committees.
ARE THE NUMBER OF COMMITTEES & THEIR COMPOSITION FIXED?
The Prime Minister may change the numbers of committees, and modify the functions assigned to them. The membership of each committee varies from three to eight. Usually, only Cabinet ministers are members of these committees. However, it is not unheard of for non-Cabinet ministers to be members or special invitees to committees. If the Prime Minister himself is a member of any such committee, he acts as the head of that committee.
HOW MANY CABINET COMMITTEES ARE THERE?
There are eight Cabinet committees at present —
- The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet,
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs,
- Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs,
- Cabinet Committee on Accommodation.
- Cabinet Committee on Security,
- Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs,
- Cabinet Committee on Employment & Skill Development Introduced in
- Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth, 2019
All committees except the cabinet committee on accommodation and cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs are headed by the pm.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CCS
With the Prime Minister helming it, the CCS has the ministers for Finance, Defence, Home Affairs and External Affairs as its members. It is responsible for
- Debates, discussions and appointments of/ in the national security bodies.
- Major decisions with respect to the significant appointments, issues of national security, defence expenditure of India are taken by CCS.
- Besides dealing with defence related issues, the CCS also brainstorms on issues relating to law and order and internal security, and policy matters concerning foreign affairs on security-related issues.
- It also considers matters relating to atomic energy.
HAVE ALLIANCE PARTNERS BEEN PART OF CCS?
YES.
- The most notable example was of the H D Deve Gowda government of 1996, Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav became Defence Minister, P Chidambaram, who had formed the Tamil Maanila Congress earlier that year, became Finance Minister, and CPI’s Indrajit Gupta became Home Minister.
- In 2001, with Vajpayee heading the NDA government, Samata Party founder George Fernandes was appointed the Defence Minister and remained in the post for three years.
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