For the second day in a row, opposition MPs on Tuesday walked out of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting for the Waqf Amendment Bill, citing “unfair treatment” at the hands of the chairman, who they allege is pursuing “the BJP’s agenda”.
Jagdambika Pal is a senior member of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the head of the committee.
Right after boycotting the meeting on Tuesday, the opposition MPs sent a letter to the Lok Sabha speaker, seeking his intervention in the matter and even requested for the chairman to be changed.
The letter has been signed by all opposition MPs who are on the committee, including Gaurav Gogoi from the Congress, Trinamool Congress’s Kalyan Banerjee, and even Asaduddin Owaisi from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
An excerpt of the letter released by opposition parties and accessed by CNN-News18 reads, ”The proceedings of the Committee were conducted in a biased and partisan manner by the Chairperson Shri Jagdambika Pal. The invitation extended to Mr Anwar Manippady to depose evidence before the Committee by the Chairperson is not within the scope and ambit of the Committee. Mr Manippady introduced himself as the chairperson of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission and more significantly the spokesperson and former Vice President of the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. At the beginning of his remarks, Mr Manippady circulated a note titled ‘Presentation on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2012 based on Karnataka Waqf Scam Report 2012’ to the committee members. The note is attached in the annexure for your reference. The note contained no observations on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024. Instead, it was full of politically motivated allegations against leaders of the Karnataka Congress, including Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Hon’ble Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha). Despite vehement protests by several committee members that Shri Kharge occupies a constitutional position of high dignity and is not present in the meeting, the witness was allowed to speak by the Chairperson. Further, he refused to provide adequate time to committee members to lodge their protests. The Chairperson’s decision to allow the witness to continue speaking goes against basic rules of procedure as outlined in ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha’ (M.N. Kaul and S.L. Shakdher). The rules clearly state that matters which are sub judice, cannot be discussed incidentally. Further, the position of Leader of Opposition is a position of high dignity as defined by Kaul and Shakdher. Subsequently under Rule 353 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, defamatory or incriminatory allegations cannot be made against any person unless the member is given adequate advance notice. Most importantly, Members of the Committee were deprived of their fundamental right to voice their concerns and thoughts in a space which is expected to operate with the highest alignment to democratic values. As a result, several committee members were forced to boycott Committee proceedings for the entire day. We believe that it is imperative to inform you of the situation, as it not only involves an insult to the Hon’ble Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, but paves a way for a marked departure from the spirit of bipartisanship and dignity expected from a parliamentary committee.”
On Tuesday morning, there was a heated war of words between the BJP MPs on one side and the opposition lawmakers on the other. Sources told CNN-News18 that the argument occurred because of certain opposition leaders opposing the mandatory appointment of women in the Waqf Council as proposed in the amended bill. Gaurav Gogoi and Kalyan Banerjee got into a heated argument with Nishikant Dubey, Dilip Saikia, and Justice (R) Abhijeet Ganguly on the issue after which the opposition leaders staged a walkout.
It was also pointed out by the opposition parties that the presentation made by the ministry of minority affairs ran into close to 800 pages and it would not be possible for everybody to read it immediately and put in their points of objection and seek a response.
The “tearing hurry” with which the government seems to be pushing for the bill even more after union home minister Amit Shah recently said that it will be passed in Parliament in the upcoming winter session is something that opposition MPs have questioned.
Even on Monday, the opposition staged a walkout for the entire day from the JPC meeting after a presentation by a former office bearer of the BJP in Karnataka who had come to represent the state Waqf Board, and he had made allegations of corruption against Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The opposition led by the Congress protested vociferously against this, saying that casting aspersions on someone without giving notice in advance is not acceptable. The NDA MPs countered that the allegation against Kharge was in the public domain, and that if anything was to be removed from the records that would be the domain of the committee chairman.
A list of 18 members that the presentation had named for “land heist” included Kharge, former union ministers Rahman Khan and CK Jaffer Sharief, among others.
Sources said that of the 800-page presentation made by the minority affairs ministry, close to a hundred pages could be discussed on Tuesday, and the committee is likely to meet early next week.
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