Row erupts in Parliament after Waqf JPC submits its report on bill
The joint parliamentary committee (JPC) examining controversial amendments to the Waqf bill submitted its report to both Houses on Thursday
The joint parliamentary committee (JPC) examining controversial amendments to the Waqf bill submitted its report to both Houses on Thursday, triggering chaos and disruptions as the Opposition protested against the alleged deletion of parts of their dissent notes in the report.
As the Opposition stormed to the Well of the House, Union home minister Amit Shah told Speaker Om Birla that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had no objection if the omitted parts were added.
“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,” he said.
After Shah’s intervention, Birla announced that some members of the JPC came to meet him and all the points they raised during the meeting were incorporated in the annexure. Hours later, the full report with the annexure for the missing parts of the dissent notes was circulated.
The Lower House formed the 31-member JPC on he Waqf amendment bill on August 9, a day after the draft legislation was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
The JPC approved key amendments to the proposed law by a majority, rejecting all amendments put forth by members of opposition parties and accepting those put forth by the BJP and its allies.
One of the amendments, tabled by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey, offered major relief to many existing Waqf properties. It said that the provision of “Waqf by user” will remain applicable for current properties and could not be questioned on the grounds of the new law scrapping this. “Waqf by user” refers to a category where a property is acknowledged as Waqf because it has been used for religious activities for some time, despite there being no official declaration or registration as Waqf.
To be sure, the recommendations of the JPC are not binding on the government.
Disruptions erupted in both Houses of Parliament on Thursday after the tabling of the JPC report with the Opposition accusing the government of censoring its dissent – a charge denied by the government, which also pointed out that rules of select committees allow the chairman to withhold remarks that are not parliamentary or cast aspersion on the working of the panel.
As soon as the BJP’s Medha Kulkarni tabled the report in the Upper House, the Opposition rose in protest, claiming that their dissent notes were not included in the document.
Three MPs – Trinamool Congress’s Nadimul Haque and Samirul Islam, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Mohammad Abdullah – trooped into the Well to protest even as chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked for the House to be in order and chastised the MPs for creating “disruption and disturbance”.
Leader of the House and BJP president JP Nadda said that in a parliamentary democracy, MPs agree to disagree and called the Opposition “irresponsible” for not heeding the Chair’s instruction to bring the House in order to hear the President’s message.
As the uproar continued, Leader of the Opposition and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the MPs were not agitating for their individual interests but for society at large. Pointing out that only the views of the majority were included in the report, he condemned how the views of the Opposition were “bulldozed”. He suggested that the report be sent back to the JPC and presented again after the inclusion of all dissent notes.
“...This is anti-democracy… I condemn any report that has been presented after deleting the dissent reports. We will never accept such reports… If the report does not have dissent views, it should be sent back and presented again,” he said.
Similar views were echoed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh, who said the government could agree or disagree with the Opposition’s views but could not suppress their stance.
After DMK’s Tiruchi Siva cited Rule 274, pertaining to the functioning of a standing committee, that specifies that any dissent has to be presented to the House, Union minister Bhupender Yadav said the rules that pertain to the functioning of a select committee, such as the one set up to examine the Waqf amendments, allow the chairman of the committee to expunge any inappropriate, irrelevant or unparliamentary dissent.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju then clarified that the dissent notes were included in the report, which was followed by the Opposition walking out. Opposition MPs met Birla and pressed for their full dissent notes to be included in the report.
Speaking outside Parliament, Rijiju said, “When the JPC report was tabled in the Rajya Sabha today, some Opposition members said their dissent notes had been removed. I spoke to the chairman of the JPC, he said the report includes the dissent notes and annexures. The chairman has the power to remove any content that casts aspersions on the committee. We told them (the Opposition) that if they think that it should not have been removed, they can raise it with the chairman.”
Accusing the Opposition of seeking to “discredit their own report”, Rijiju said, “There can be differences in opinion within the JPC, but even the opposition views have been included in the annexures.”
Responding to a question on when the fresh Waqf bill will be presented, he said, “The report will come to the government, it will then be sent to cabinet and after that the fresh bill will be tabled in Parliament.”
The bill, introduced by the government in the previous session, seeks to bring changes to the powers of state Waqf boards, survey of Waqf properties and removal of encroachments by amending the Waqf Act, 1995. A Waqf is a Muslim religious endowment, usually in the form of landed property, made for purposes of charity and community welfare.
The government argues the bill modernises norms and brings in uniformity but the Opposition has called it an attempt to infringe on religious rights and the Constitution.