Birla may extend tenure of Waqf JPC: Oppn after meeting Speaker
Opposition leaders urge Lok Sabha speaker to extend the Joint Committee's tenure on the Waqf Bill, citing insufficient time for stakeholder input.
A group of Opposition leaders on Monday said Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla may extend the tenure of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendments) Bill even as the Bharatiya Janata Party, buoyed by its recent victory in Maharashtra, is keen to pass the controversial bill in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
Senior officials told HT that just four days are left for the joint committee to submit its report and it will need at least a week to wrap up the final rounds of meeting and adopt the report. The panel, led by BJP’s Jagdambika Pal, was tasked to submit the report by November 29, the last day of the first week of the session.
Eleven non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) members of the joint committee met Birla on Monday to argue that various state governments and stakeholders were yet to depose before the panel. The letter reminded that the proposed changes in Waqf law “will affect large section of India’s population. Therefore, a mere three months’ time before the report is finalised is not only inadequate but may result in improper recommendations.”
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi said, “All 11 non-BJP MPs went to meet the Speaker and he listened to us very patiently. He said that our demands will be considered. We hope that he will extend the tenure as we couldn’t go to Bengal, Bihar. We couldn’t monitor the properties of Shia Waqf in Uttar Pradesh. We have invited Delhi’s ministers too. They are stakeholders too. There are several states where committee should visit.”
Trinamool Congress member Nadimul Haq said, “The Speaker assured that the time of JPC will be extended.”
Pal, meanwhile, announced that the draft report was ready and may call the next meeting on November 28, a day before the current deadline. The ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITy) officials are expected to appear in the next meeting.
A senior leader of the ruling dispensation, however, added that the “The government is ready and the bill has been listed in the session... the JPC too has been working and should the Speaker’s office indicate so, it will be in a position to submit its report, after taking on board all the responses and dissent note.”
This person declined to comment on whether the government will be agreeable to the demand to extend the JPC’s term.
A second BJP leader said the government’s intent to bring the bill and push for its passage was clear from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on Saturday while addressing party workers in the Capital.
“The PM’s speech has made it clear that the days of the Waqf board are numbered...he was emphatic that the country will follow the Constitution framed by Babasahab Ambedkar and that Constitution did not have any provision for Waqf,” the second leader said.
On Saturday, the PM accused the Congress of “backstabbing” the Constitution framers by “sowing the seeds of appeasement” and referred to the Waqf Board as an example of that.
“...The Congress made laws for appeasement, ignoring even the orders of the Supreme Court. One stark example of this is the Waqf board. In 2014, these people while demitting office handed over several properties to the Waqf board. There is no mention of Waqf in the Constitution framed by Ambedkar, yet the Congress for the sake of appeasement created such entities and it was done so that the votebank of the Congress family can increase,” Modi had said, hours after the BJP achieved a landslide victory in Maharashtra.
The tussle between the Opposition and BJP lawmakers over the panel’s extension has been going on for some time now. The Opposition members have lodged protests during the meeting, met Birla last month and wrote letters to seek more time while Pal held 28 meetings since August 22 at a feverish pace.
The controversial bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August. The draft bill proposed sweeping changes in the regulation and governance of India’s waqf boards, which manage Islamic charitable endowments. The government argued that the bill will modernise an archaic and complex system in line with recommendations of the 2006 Rajinder Sachar Committee. But the Opposition demanded greater scrutiny for the bill, alleging that it would hurt Muslim communities.