The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs (SCOHA) is a department related standing committee (DRSC) of selected members of parliament, constituted by the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

, for the purpose of legislative oversight of the

domestic policy Domestic policy, also known as internal policy, is a type of public policy overseeing administrative decisions that are directly related to all issues and activity within a state's borders. It differs from foreign policy, which refers to the ways ...

internal security Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other Self-governance, self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. This task and rol ...

and decision making of the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

. It is one of the 24 DRSCs that have been mandated with the onerous task of ministry specific oversight. The committee currently is headed by MP

Radha Mohan Das Agarwal Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agrawal (born 6 March 1955) is the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) from Uttar Pradesh since 5 July 2022, and has been a member of the 14th, 15th, 16th, and ...

Current composition

Each of the committees have 31 members – 21 from

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

and 10 from

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

. These members are to be nominated by the

Speaker of Lok Sabha The Speaker of the Lok Sabha (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the Chairperson, presiding officer and the highest authority of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The speaker is elected gener ...

or the

Chairman of Rajya Sabha The vice president of India (ISO: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the ...

respectively. The term of office of these committees does not exceed one year. These committees are serviced either by

secretariat or the

secretariat, depending on who has appointed the chairman of that committee. Following are the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs Keys: = 31 members

Comments and reports

Tek Fog

In January 2022, MP Derek O'Brien (

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (; AITC), simply known as Trinamool Congress, is an Indian political party that is mainly influential in the Federated state, state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a Lis ...

) and a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs wrote to

Anand Sharma Anand Sharma (born 5 January 1953) is an Indian politician and former Union Cabinet Minister in charge of Commerce and Industry and Textiles in the Government of India. Since June 2014, Sharma was the Deputy Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, ...

, head of the committee to discuss the secret app " Tek Fog" that "has serious ramifications and could jeopardise national security". He wrote, "This application is capable of penetrating encrypted messaging platforms and secure social media conversations, in order to heavily manipulate and exploit narratives on said platforms." On 12 January, Congress leader and leader of the party in the Lok Sabha

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (born 2 April 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the leader of the Indian National Congress in the 17th Lok Sabha and from 2019 to 2024 and the Member of Parliament from Berhampore from 1999 to 2024. He has ser ...

also wrote to the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, Anand Sharma, asking the committee discuss the "Violative Software Application 'Tek Fog'", in their next meeting. The Parliamentary standing committee asked the Union Home Ministry to provide information about the 'Tek Fog' app that was allegedly used for manipulating social media trends. On 12 February, responding to the request, MoS for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, "The ministry has searched for the app on all prominent app stores and APK stores and could not find so called app in any of these online stores."

Police reforms

In 2022, the committee submitted to Rajya Sabha, its report titled "Police — Training, Modernisation and Reforms", the committee expressed concern about the low representation of women in police forces, at only 10.30%.

Chairpersons

Notes

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References

Committees of the Parliament of India Ministry of Home Affairs (India)

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...