New Delhi: Amidst uproar over alleged deletion of some of the dissenting remarks made by opposition MPs in the final draft of Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, both the houses of parliament were adjourned until March 10, 2025.
When Medha Vishram Kulkarni, BJP MP from Maharashtra, tabled the report of the Joint Committee on the Waqf Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge rose to protest that some of the remarks made by opposition MPs who were part of the JPC were missing in the final report.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge called the tabled report “fake” and demanded its withdrawal and an additional review by the JPC.
“In the JPC report on the Waqf Board, many members have their dissent report. It is not right to remove those notes and bulldoze our views. This is anti-democratic and condemnable. Stockholders were called from outside and their statements were taken. I condemn any report that has been presented after deleting the dissent reports,” the PTI quoted Kharge as saying.
“We will never accept such fake reports. If the report does not have dissent views, it should be sent back and presented again,” Kharge said.
Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha Syed Naser Hussain, claimed that his dissent notes had been deleted. “Discussion among JPC members was not done,” Hussain said, as a large chunk of opposition MPs walked out of the House.
Speaking with ANI, Union home minister Amit Shah said, “Some members of the Opposition have raised concern that their views have not been included completely (in the Waqf JPC report). I want to say on behalf of my party that considering the concerns of the Opposition, anything may be added, my party has no objection.”
JPC proceedings
However, the Lok Sabha saw a similar uproar over the Waqf bill. Soon after Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the new Income Tax bill and the House, after initial disagreements decided to send it to a select committee, the BJP MP Jagadambika Pal, who also chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf bill, tabled the final JPC report. This was followed by a huge uproar over opposition MPs registering their protest for not having been given enough time to read the final draft. As the protests escalated, the Lok Sabha was adjourned amidst opposition’s sloganeering.
Pal alleged that the opposition was trying to block parliamentary proceedings despite assurance from Shah that their remarks will not be redacted in the final report.
Later, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi told reporters that the opposition barely got any time to present their views. “One night to read the 655-page report…We had hardly any time to present our objections. If you check the minutes of the meetings, you will find that there was no clause-by-clause discussion. We have been all part of many JPCs, and clause-by-clause discussion is most important, but it was bypassed. Under whose influence is the chairman acting? In protest to this, we staged a walkout today,” Gogoi told ANI.
The opposition MPs also alleged that the dissenting remarks in the JPC by opposition MPs had been deleted. AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi demanded a complete rejection of the report. “…This bill is not just unconstitutional and violates Articles 14, 15 and 29 of the Constitution, it is not to save Waqf but to ruin it and snatching it from the Muslims…We condemn this bill…The Speaker has assured that redacted versions of 70% of the dissent reports of MPs will be included…,” he said. He said the revisions made by BJP MPs in the JPC worsens the bill even more than its original form.
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the union government, BJP MP Kiren Rijiju denied the allegations of wilful deletion, and said that the opposition MPs were misleading the House.
“If the dissent notes cast aspersion on the committee, then the chairman has the power to remove it if needed. The chairman has this power as per the rules. If the members think that something should not have been removed, they can ask the chairman. It is not right to call the JPC report illegal and unconstitutional… It is not the NDA’s report; it is the report of the Parliament,” the PTI reported Rijiju as saying.
‘Deleting notes’
However, opposition MPs said that the JPC proceedings were “biased” and “one-sided” – a charge that Rijiju denied. The JPC report was passed by a majority 15-11 vote earlier, although the opposition MPs kept their protests going against what they claimed was bulldozing their opinions in the JPC.
Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale said that deletion of dissent notes from the JPC report amounted to “censorship” and was an “unparliamentary act”. Similarly, TMC Kalyan Banerjee called Pal an “autocrat” and said he acted “illegally” by “deleting” opposition notes. Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said that the bill was an official way to grab land where mosques, gurdwaras, and churches and distribute it to the Prime Minister’s industrialist friends.
Samajwadi Party MP Zia Ur Rehman Barq and Dimple Yadav said they will oppose the bill when it comes up for discussion in March, 2025, and added that bringing the bill on the last day of the session only was a diversionary measure by the union government not to address more pressing concerns.
Later, the question hour in the Rajya Sabha was also adjourned sine die amidst opposition’s protests.
