New Delhi: Amid opposition uproar over dissent notes being allegedly deleted from the JPC report on the Waqf amendment bill, Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said certain portions which amounted to “casting aspersions” on the panel itself were redacted.
Led by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, the opposition MPs said the dissent notes were “redacted” from the report after it was tabled by BJP member Medha Vishram Kulkarni in the Upper House.
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 said 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 committee, which the chairman feels is not right, then the chairman has power to remove it, not the report. It’s written in the rules,” he added.
“The chairman, perhaps, used that power, which is as per the rules,” he said, adding, “Everything has happened as per the rules.”
The minister said if the opposition members have any objection to redaction of such things in the dissent notes, they can appeal before the chairman of the committee or the Lok Sabha Speaker, he said.
“Chairman or Speaker can include it if they consider it right,” he said.
Rijiju said there can be differences of opinion within the JPC with one section of members representing the government and other opposition but it was not right on the part of the opposition members to call the JPC report “illegal and unconstitutional”.
“Even the opposition views are also put in the annexure. So it is wrong to say that opposition’s dissent notes are not included in the JPC report. This is wrong. Every view, be it those considered (endorsed) by the majority and those rejected by the majority, all are included in the JPC report,” he said.
Kharge said the “report of the joint committee of Parliament on Waqf… in which several members had given their dissent note has been taken out. Bulldozing the report by only keeping the views of the majority members is not right. It is condemnable, anti-democratic”.
Asked if some portions of the dissent notes have been redacted, the minister said he was yet to go through the report but “as per the chairman (of the JPC), some of the words or some of the sentences which amount to casting aspersions on the committee itself that will be removed by the chairman”.
“It is his (JPC chairman’s) discretion. I cannot comment on that. I am not controlling the JPC. We referred the matter (Waqf Amendment Bill) to the JPC. It has its own powers and functions to deal with the matter,” he said.
Rijiju said the JPC has prepared its report after an extensive consultation with stakeholders over the past six months as he hit out at the opposition parties for raising objections to it.
“It’s not an NDA report. It’s report of the joint parliamentary committee which comprises (representatives from) all parties. if you are speaking against it, you are rejecting your own report,” he said.
“Let the House consider this report and the government will see what is to be done in the right manner,” he added.
