As the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, the Upper House erupted in chaos. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the dissent remarks were deleted from the report, but the statements of non-stakeholders are included.
However Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said that no dissent note was deleted. Kharge called the report condemnable, anti-democratic and urged Dhankar to send the report back to JPC.
The Opposition staged a walkout from Lok Sabha following JPC report on Waqf bill was tabled in the House. “One night to read the 655-page report…We had hardly any time to present our objections. If you check the minutes of the meetings, you will find that there was no clause-by-clause discussion. We have been all part of many JPCs, and clause-by-clause discussion is most important, but it was bypassed. Under whose influence is the chairman acting? In protest to this, we staged a walk out today,” Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said.
On Waqf JPC report, Union Minister Chirag Paswan said, “We were clear that as soon as the JPC is ready with their report, it will be submitted to the Parliament… My party and I always had this concern that every stakeholder connected with the Waqf Board should get a chance to represent themselves and put forward their concerns, which they did…”