New Delhi | Amid strained ties with the opposition parties, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday constituted Parliamentary Friendship Groups with more than 60 countries, comprising various opposition members, including those suspended from the Lower House recently for unruly behaviour.
The decision of the Lok Sabha speaker comes amid an opposition plan to remove him from office, alleging partisan conduct in the House.
Prominent opposition leaders such as Shashi Tharoor, P Chidambaram, Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), K Kanimozhi (DMK), Derek O'Brien, Abhishek Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Arvind Sawant (SS-UBT), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party) will chair the parliamentary groups, each having 11 members.
Senior BJP leaders such as Ravi Shankar Prasad, Baijayant Panda, Nishikant Dubey, and Anurag Thakur have also been appointed as chairpersons of the parliamentary groups.
Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde and JD-U member Sanjay Jha too have been roped in as chairpersons.
Among the suspended Congress Lok Sabha members, Manickam Tagore has been made a member of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Indonesia, Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Italy), Hibi Eden (Singapore), Amarinder Singh Raj Warring (UK), Prashant Padole (Trinidad and Tobago), Dean Kuriakose (Saudi Arabia) and C Kiran Kumar Reddy (South Korea).
CPI(M) member S Venkatesan has been made a member of the parliamentary group with Cuba.
Speaker Birla is likely to constitute more such groups, which are co-terminus with the tenure of the Lok Sabha.
"The move reflects a conscious effort by the Indian Parliament to deepen dialogue and exchanges with legislatures across continents and to complement traditional diplomacy with sustained parliamentary interaction," Birla said.
Stepping up global outreach in the aftermath of the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam last April and the Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure deep inside Pakistan that followed, India had dispatched seven parliamentary delegations across 33 world capitals to articulate its "zero tolerance for terror" policy.
The seven delegations articulated India's stand on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, rising above ideological differences.
Among the BJP leaders, Ravi Shankar Prasad will lead the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Israel, Baijayant Panda (US), Nishikant Dubey (Russia), Anurag Thakur (EU Parliament), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Switzerland), Sudhanshu Trivedi (Saudi Arabia) and D Purandeshwari (Sri Lanka).
Among Congress leaders, P Chidambaram will lead the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Italy, Manish Tewari (Japan), Shashi Tharoor (France), Kodikunnil Suresh (Qatar), Rajiv Shukla (Austria), Gaurav Gogoi (Philippines), Mukul Wasnik (Ireland), Kumari Selja (Mongolia), Pramod Tiwari (Mexico), and K C Venugopal (Portugal).
Among the Samajwadi Party leaders, Akhilesh Yadav will lead the Friendship Group with Australia, Dharmendra Yadav (Armenia) and Ram Gopal Yadav (Egypt).
Among the Trinamool Congress leaders, Derek O'Brien will lead the group for Chile, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Bulgaria), and Abhishek Banerjee (Algeria).
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been made a member of the Friendship Group for Japan, led by Manish Tewari.
Similarly, Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra is part of the group for Portugal led by Venugopal.
DMK leaders T R Baalu, Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva will lead the friendship groups for Malaysia, Greece and Bahrain, respectively.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi will lead the Friendship Group for Oman, BJD's Sasmit Patra (Georgia) and YSRCP's P V Midhun Reddy (the Baltics).
RJD leader Premchand Gupta will helm the group for Kenya.
Shiv Sena-UBT leader Arvind Sawant will lead the group to Morocco, while NCP-SP leader Supriya Sule will help the team for Singapore.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh will head the group for the Caribbean countries, while RSP's N K Premachandran will head the group for Madagascar.
Among the allies, Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena) will lead the group for Indonesia, Sanjay Jha of the JD-U (Germany), NCP's Praful Patel (Brazil), M Sreenivasulu Reddy (Cuba), AIADMK's M Thambidurai (Nigeria), while TDP's Lavu Shri Krishna Devarayalu will head the group for the Maldives.
BJP leader Bhartruhari Mahtab will lead the group for the United Kingdom, Hema Malini (South Africa), Ashok Chavan (Argentina), Samik Bhattacharya (New Zealand), and Aparajita Sarangi (Tanzania).
The idea is to allow the lawmakers to speak directly to their counterparts abroad, share legislative experience, and build trust through regular engagements, a Lok Sabha Secretariat statement said.
Beyond parliamentary procedure, the groups are expected to facilitate conversations on trade, technology, social policy, culture, and global challenges that democracies face today, it said.
Under Birla's leadership, Parliament has taken a more active role in international fora, projecting India not only as a political power but as a confident and mature democracy willing to engage, listen and collaborate, the statement said.
