Opposition dubs waqf JPC proceedings ‘mockery’ | India News

Eleven opposition members on the JPC issued a joint statement accusing committee chairperson Jagdambika Pal of violating panel rules and procedures

NEW DELHI: As opposition dubbed proceedings of joint parliamentary committee on Waqf Amendment Bill as a ‘mockery’ and its impending report ‘pre-decided’, DMK MP A Raja announced that his party will move Supreme Court to strike down the new law if it is approved by Parliament.
Eleven opposition members on the JPC issued a joint statement accusing committee chairperson Jagdambika Pal of violating panel rules and procedures. Slamming Pal of “acting at behest of” Centre, they said their sincere efforts to protect the constitutional assurances given to minorities have been defeated. “The awkward and solo acting of the chairman… made him a painter to enable Union govt to give saffron colour to this secular nation by using its brutal majority in Parliament,” the statement said, exhorting citizens to protect the rights of minorities and social harmony.
They said the chairperson did not allow opposition members to place their views on the amendments and had not made available to members minutes of the meetings held in Delhi and other places. They said 95% of the stakeholders who deposed before the panel opposed the bill. “No discussion on clause by clause was permitted by the chairman, which is an essential element in the process,” the statement said, signed by Raja, Kalyan Banerjee, Gaurav Gogoi, Asaduddin Owaisi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Mohibbullah, Imran Masood, MM Abdulla, Mohd Jawed, Arvind Sawant, Nadimul Haque.
The MPs said the JPC toured Patna, Kolkata and Lucknow on Jan 18, 20, 21, to hear stakeholders of respective states, and the chairperson directed the stakeholders to submit their views within 15 days. “These documents are yet to reach the committee for perusal of the members,” the statement said.
They said they protested to the chairman that clause-by-clause discussion could not take place without depositions of stakeholders, but their plea was ignored. They alleged Pal moved the opposition’s amendments himself, and conducted the headcount to decide their fate, calling the process adopted a grave departure from the established rules.
The members lamented that JPC meets were scheduled for Jan 24 and 25 for clause-by-clause discussion on the bill, but its agenda was changed at last moment. The MPs said when they raised the issue, they were “suspended undemocratically”.