The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, descended into chaos on Friday, leading to the suspension of at least ten Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) for the day.
The suspended MPs, including TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, Congress’s Mohd Jawed and Naseer Hussain, DMK’s A Raja and M. Abdullah, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, Samajwadi Party’s Mohibullah, Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant, and TMC’s Nadeem ul Haq and Imran Masood, accused the chairman of the panel of conducting the meeting like an “undeclared emergency.”
Speaking to news agency ANI, Banerjee said, “It is like an undeclared emergency going on in the meeting… The chairman is proceeding with this (meeting) and doesn’t listen to anyone… They (BJP MPs) think that they are deputy PM and deputy home minister.”
The tension erupted after 11 am, with opposition leaders claiming they were not given enough time to study the changes proposed in the draft of the Waqf Amendment Bill. They also objected to the shifting of the agenda from a clause-by-clause discussion.
The JPC, led by BJP’s Jagdambika Pal, was expected to hear the views of a delegation headed by Jammu and Kashmir’s religious leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Opposition leaders have raised concerns about BJP pushing for an early presentation of the report in Parliament, citing the upcoming Delhi Elections in 2025 as a factor.
Jagdambika Pal, after a meeting in Lucknow, confirmed that the last meeting of the JPC would take place on January 24. The committee is set to submit its 500-page report during the Budget Session of 2025.
The Waqf Amendment Bill seeks changes to the Waqf Act of 1995, with provisions to include Muslim women and non-Muslims in Waqf boards and grant the district collector the authority to resolve disputes over Waqf and government land. It also proposes a non-Muslim Chief Executive Officer for Waqf bodies, a change that has drawn criticism from opponents who say the amendments will reduce the power of Waqf boards.
The committee has held 34 meetings across India and invited over 24 stakeholders to present their views. Despite the controversy, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, also a member of the JPC, accused the Opposition of trying to “strangle the voice of the majority,” stating that the final report will be submitted to the speaker on January 29.
