To 'deepen dialogue' globally, Om Birla sets up 64 parliamentary friendship groups with over 60 nations

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday set up Parliamentary Friendship Groups with more than 60 countries with around 700 MPs, including those from Opposition MPs, as members to "deepen dialogue" with legislatures across continents and to complement traditional diplomacy with sustained Parliamentary interaction.

The decision comes in the midst of an Opposition move table a motion for Birla's removal as Speaker claiming partisan conduct. Each of the 64 panels will have 11 MPs each, including at least one woman.

Prominent Opposition leaders like KC Venugopal, Gaurav Gogoi, Shashi Tharoor and P Chidambaram (Congress),  Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Arvind Sawant (SS-UBT) and Supriya Sule (NCP-SP) will lead the panels.

Senior BJP leaders such as Ravi Shankar Prasad, , Nishikant Dubey, Baijayant Panda and Anurag Thakur are among around 30 BJP MPs who have been appointed as chairpersons of these groups. 

The panels also include MPs, who were suspended during the Budget Session. Suspended MPs Manickam Tagore Indonesia, Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Italy), Hibi Eden (Singapore), Amarinder Singh Raja Warring (UK), Prashant Padole (Trinidad and Tobago), Dean Kuriakose (Saudi Arabia) and C Kiran Kumar Reddy (South Korea) -- all from Congress -- and CPI(M)'s S Venkatesan (Cuba) have been panel members.

"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. Officials said the Speaker is likely to constitute more such groups.

Among the Congress leaders, Venugopal will lead the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Portugal while Chidambaram will lead the panel with Italy, Tewari (Japan), Tharoor (France), Kodikunnil Suresh (Qatar), Rajiv Shukla (Austria), Gogoi (Philippines), Mukul Wasnik (Ireland), Kumari Selja (Mongolia) and Pramod Tiwari (Mexico). Senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been made a member of the Friendship Group for Japan.

From the ruling BJP, 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), Bhartruhari Mahtab (United Kingdom), Hema Malini (South Africa) and Ashok Chavan (Argentina), 

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will lead the Parliament Friendship Group with Australia while his party colleagues Dharmendra Yadav will head the panel on Armenia) and Ram Gopal Yadav on Egypt.

The idea is to allow the lawmakers to speak directly to their counterparts abroad, share legislative experience, and build trust through regular engagements. Beyond parliamentary procedure, the groups are expected to facilitate conversations on trade, technology, social policy, culture, and global challenges that democracies face today, a Lok Sabha Secretariat statement said.