NEW DELHI: High drama was witnessed during a meeting of the joint parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, on Friday after 10 opposition MPs were suspended by chairman Jagdambika Pal even as the protesting lawmakers alleged that the proceedings of the meeting were being held in a unilateral manner. They later wrote to Speaker Om Birla, urging him to direct the committee chief to conduct the meetings in a “transparent and fair manner”.
Stormy scenes were witnessed soon after the meeting began at 11 am, with opposition members, including AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and other leaders from the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK and the Shiv Sena (UBT), objecting to the last-minute rescheduling of the meeting and its agenda.
Friday’s meeting had been initially called to discuss the Bill clause by clause. However, the opposition members told Birla in a letter later in the day that they were apprised of the change in the agenda at the eleventh hour (January 23 night) and informed that Pal had invited Kashmir leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to appear before the panel.
Farooq, who was asked to make his representations before the panel on the concerns of the Muslim community in Jammu and Kashmir, later condemned the suspension of the opposition members and also informed mediapersons that he had submitted a memorandum on behalf of his Muttahida Majlis-e- Ulema, opposing the proposed Waqf Amendment Bill and favoured non-interference by the government in matters concerning religion.
The suspended MPs included Trinamool Congress’ Kalyan Banerjee and Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Congress’ Syed Naseer Husain, Imran Masood, Gaurav Gogoi and Mohammad Jawed, DMK’s A Raja and MM Abdulla, SP’s Mohibbullah Nadvi, and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Arvind Sawant.
It is learnt that during Friday’s meeting, a ruckus broke out as Pal allegedly pushed for early consideration of the Bill and then rescheduled the clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill to accommodate Mirwaiz.
Heated arguments during the meeting led to a brief adjournment of the proceedings. The Mirwaiz-led delegation appeared before the committee after it was reconvened.
After the panel reconvened, the opposition members reiterated their objections before the chairman, urging him not to conduct the meeting in an arbitrary manner. The opposition members’ noisy protests continued to drown the meeting’s proceedings till the suspension of the 10 members for the day.
Banerjee and Husain later told reporters that the proceedings of the committee had become a “farce”. Banerjee said the opposition members had earlier requested the chairman to defer today’s meeting due to their commitments, and he had said he would look into it.
“Despite our request, we were told that a meeting would take place on January 24 and 25 for a clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill. So, we all came. Then (on January 23 night), we were told that the clause-by-clause meeting would not be held on January 24 as a delegation from Kashmir was coming. We were told the clause-by-clause discussion would take place on January 27. We objected, saying that the Budget session would start on January 31 and we all have commitments in our constituencies,” Banerjee told mediapersons. Later in the evening, the 10 suspended members wrote to Speaker, narrating the chain of events and urging him to postpone the January 27 meeting.