DH NEWS SERVICE
New Delhi, Feb 13
The joint parliamentary committee report on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday amid demands for its withdrawal and brief adjournment of the proceedings following a heated debate between the treasury and opposition benches.
Opposition MPs led by Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that dissent notes were deleted from the report, a charge denied by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
The report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was tabled by BJP member Medha Vishram Kulkarni, a member of the panel, followed by uproar from the opposition members. The clamour continued as Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar tried to read out a message from President Droupadi Murmu.
“Don’t show disrespect to the President of India,” Dhankhar said and urged Kharge to ask the opposition members to take their seats.
As the uproar continued, the Upper House was adjourned till 11:20 am.
When the Upper House reconvened, the chairman read out the message from the president that she had received the expression of thanks by members of the Rajya Sabha on her address to a joint sitting of Parliament on January 31.
Meanwhile, many Opposition members stood from their seats and gathered around the initial rows from the Chair, continuously pressing their demand for the withdrawal of the report amid the threat of serious action from the House chairman.
Leader of the House J P Nadda regretted that the Rajya Sabha was not in order when the president’s message was read out.
Chairman Dhankhar said Samirul Islam, Nadimul Haque and M Mohamed Abdulla “created chaos and disruption in the House”. Kharge was then called to speak.
The Congress chief said the dissent notes of opposition MPs in the report on the Waqf bill were redacted from the report.
“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,” he said.
Calling it a “fake report”, Kharge said it should be withdrawn and sent back to a committee. The MPs are protesting not for personal reasons but because of the injustice being done to a community, he said.
“This is not about any individual… These MPs are not protesting for their own sake, they are protesting for the community against which injustice is being done,” Kharge said.
DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and AAP’s Sanjay Singh also objected to the alleged removal of dissent notes from the report.
Union Minister for Environment Bhupender Yadav quoted rules and said the JPC chairman has the power to expunge words, expressions and phrases from the dissent note if they are inappropriate and unparliamentary.
However, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju denied the Opposition’s allegations and said everything has been kept on the floor of the House and nothing has been removed from the report.
“There is no deletion or removal of any part of the report. Don’t mislead the House. Opposition members (are) making unnecessary issues. The allegation is false,” he said.
Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Nirmala Sitharaman also accused the opposition parties of misleading the Upper House, prompting another heated exchange between the treasury and the opposition benches.
The Congress’ Syed Nasir Hussain accused Rijiju — who is also the Union minority affairs minister — of misleading the House and said, “My own dissent note has been redacted.” Trinamool Congress member Saket Gokhale said it was not a “religious” but a “Constitutional issue” and demanded that Rijiju should respond if any redaction was done in the dissent note.
Rijiju reiterated that the report had all annexures and nothing was taken out. The opposition MPs then staged a walkout and the House proceeded with the Question Hour.
