New Delhi: The report of the Joint Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill was tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Thursday with the Lok Sabha Speaker allowing the submission of dissent notes in entirety as demanded by the opposition and Home Minister Amit Shah asserting the BJP had no objection to it.
Committee Chairman Jagdambika Pal had redacted parts of the dissent notes contending that they cast aspersions on the parliamentary panel and made personal allegations against him.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha witnessed stormy scenes with opposition members trooping to the Wells of the respective Houses protesting against the “undemocratic” action of the committee chairman.
In the Rajya Sabha, BJP member Medha Kulkarni tabled the voluminous report amid protests by the opposition members. Later, she tabled a corrigendum to Appendix 5 of the report that deals with notes/minutes of dissent, prompting the opposition to claim victory.
In the face of opposition protests in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Shah said his party has no objection to attaching the notes of dissent to the report submitted by the opposition as per parliamentary practice.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said members of the Waqf committee had met him and discussed certain issues. “Those issues have been included in the annexure,” he said as opposition members staged a walkout.
The Rajya Sabha witnessed chaos as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju rejected the allegations by opposition MPs led by Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge that dissent notes were deleted from the report.
Congress member Syed Nasir Hussain accused Rijiju — who is also the Union minority affairs minister — of misleading the House. “My own dissent note has been redacted,” Hussain said.
Later at a press conference in Parliament House complex, the Parliamentary Affairs minister said when the report was tabled in Rajya Sabha, some opposition MPs raised objections and claimed their dissent notes had been taken out.
“I spoke to the JPC chairman, enquired about it from the secretariat and informed the Rajya Sabha that the report has been tabled along with annexures.
“In this, one thing has to be kept in mind that in the annexure and dissent note if any question is raised on the committee like casting an aspersion on the committee, which the chairman feels is not right, then the chairman has the power to remove it, not the report. It’s written in the rules,” Rijiju said.
“The chairman, perhaps, used that power, which is as per the rules,” he said, adding, “Everything has happened as per the rules.”
The report of the joint committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on January 30.
The Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill had adopted the report by a majority vote and that contained changes suggested by members of the ruling BJP, prompting the opposition to dub the exercise an attempt to destroy Waqf boards. It was adopted by a 15-11 majority vote.
The Rajya Sabha also witnessed a walkout by opposition members and BJP president J P Nadda accused them of being “anti-national” and indulging in politics of appeasement.
“The aim of the opposition was not to debate, it was to score political points. It is unfortunate that even though the Parliamentary Affairs minister said nothing has been deleted… the chairman has the right to delete anything, but nothing has been deleted. This is the politics of appeasement… Some people are trying to fight against the Indian state,” he said.
“It should be on record that the walkout by the opposition today is an expression and medium to promote anti-national activities. The opposition is strengthening those who want to divide the country,” Nadda said.
Dhankhar, meanwhile, compared the report on the Waqf Amendment Bill with the Mandal Commission report, and said, “A major change in social justice occurred when the Mandal Commission report was implemented in a way. The Waqf issue is becoming a similar chapter.”
In the post-lunch sitting, BJP member Medha Kulkarni tabled a corrigendum in Appendix 5 of the report, prompting the opposition MPs to claim that it proved the House was misled by a minister earlier.
Thanking the government for the corrigendum, Dhankhar said, “I express my gratitude to the government because the matter was brought to my notice.” Opposition MPs, however, were heard saying that it was done under their pressure.
When the House convened, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that dissent notes were deleted from the report. The clamour continued as Dhankhar tried to read out a message from President Droupadi Murmu.
“Don’t show disrespect to the President of India,” the Rajya Sabha chairman said and urged Kharge to ask the opposition members to take their seats.
As the uproar continued, the House was adjourned till 11:20 am.
As the Upper House reconvened, the chairman read out the message from the president that she had received the expression of thanks by members of the Rajya Sabha on her address to a joint sitting of Parliament on January 31.
Meanwhile, many Opposition members stood from their seats and gathered around the initial rows from the Chair, continuously pressing their demand for the withdrawal of the report amid the threat of serious action from the House chairman.
Leader of the House J P Nadda regretted that the Rajya Sabha was not in order when the president’s message was read out. Dhankhar said Samirul Islam, Nadimul Haque and M Mohamed Abdulla “created chaos and disruption in the House”.
Kharge was then called to speak.
Terming the JPC report “fake”, Kharge said it should be withdrawn and sent back to a committee. The MPs are protesting not for personal reasons but because of the injustice being done to a community, he said.
“This is not about any individual… These MPs are not protesting for their own sake, they are protesting for the community against which injustice is being done,” Kharge said.
DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and AAP’s Sanjay Singh also objected to the alleged removal of dissent notes from the report.
Union Minister for Environment Bhupender Yadav quoted rules and said the JPC chairman has the power to expunge words, expressions and phrases from the dissent note if they are inappropriate and unparliamentary.
Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Nirmala Sitharaman also accused the opposition parties of misleading the Upper House, prompting another heated exchange between the treasury and the opposition benches.
Trinamool Congress member Saket Gokhale said it was not a “religious” but a “Constitutional issue” and demanded that Rijiju should respond if any redaction was done in the dissent note.
