Several opposition MPs on Monday questioned officials from the ministry of minority affairs during the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting about the Centre’s hurry to bring in the Waqf Bill.
In the written presentation submitted by the ministry, answering questions asked by MPs earlier, sources said it was mentioned that till November 2023, there was no proposal from the Union government to bring the Bill.
Opposition MPs are said to have asked why the government brought the Bill right after the Lok Sabha elections, questioning the intent of the Centre.
According to sources, the MPs argued that the BJP-led Union government thought of bringing in the Bill “only after looking at their not-so-impressive Lok Sabha performance”. The opposition MPs accused the BJP of trying to create a polarising environment in the country and said keeping the majority versus minority pot boiling was the sole intent behind bringing such a Bill. According to sources, former minority affairs minister Smriti Irani, during her term, had also said that the issues about such properties could be resolved through the Gati Shakti portal.
Senior MP Asaduddin Owaisi is said to have sought clarity on the “special expertise” that officials of the minority affairs and law and justice ministries had on Muslim laws. He also wanted to know if the government consulted the Central Waqf Council in the drafting of the Bill.
However, the ruling party MPs countered the charge by saying that the Bill was brought because of the demand from the community itself, especially the poor Muslims and women who wanted gender justice.
In Monday’s meeting, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Medha Kulkarni brought to the notice of the committee that she was in receipt of a complaint of 19 such disputed properties from a Pune-based organisation. In a letter written to the chairman, Jagdambika Pal, she also requested that the committee call them to depose.
“I am forwarding 19 cases received from the Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat, Pune, an NGO that operates across India, including 40 prants. The NGO has taken the initiative to circulate the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) notice through its WhatsApp group and Facebook page. As a result, they have received several cases related to the Waqf Board, submitted in both Marathi and English. After reviewing the submissions, the NGO has prepared brief synopses of all 19 cases. They have also included two significant Supreme Court judgments concerning the Waqf Board and the Waqf Tribunal,” an excerpt of her letter to the committee chairman reads.
The discussion on the reply by the ministry of minority affairs is likely to continue on Tuesday. Despite a few small arguments between the two sides, the meeting on Monday did not see any major fireworks as have been seen in recent meetings.
During an earlier meeting of the JPC on October 14 & 15, the united opposition had staged a walkout, citing unfair treatment. On Day 1 of the two-day meeting, the Congress walked out after one of those deposing before the panel called party president Mallikarjun Kharge a “land grabber”. On the second day too, the opposition parties walked out after an argument with BJP MPs. The MPs then wrote a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking his intervention and asking for Pal to be relieved “for failing to do his duties by being unfair and unbiased”.
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