Hyderabad: Waqf Board Amendment Bill’s JPC member and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, on Monday, January 27, rejected the passing of the bill terming it undemocratic.

Asaduddin Owaisi, while speaking at the joint press meeting by the opposition members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) said that through the bill, the Modi-led government is not safeguarding the Waqf properties nor the interests of the Muslim community of India.

“The Union government wants to “demolish and finish off the whole Waqf properties. These amendments are not brought to strengthen the Waqf board or remove the encroachments on Waqf properties but to reward encroachers,” Owaisi said.

“The government intends to superimpose the Hindutva ideology over the Waqf board,” Asaduddin Owaisi added.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, and other opposition members after a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI Photo)

JPC chief acted unfairly, claims Asaduddin Owaisi

The AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP condemned the behaviour of the JPC chairperson Jagadamibka Pal during the proceedings of approving the amendments. He alleged the JPC head did not give the Opposition members a chance to make their amendments to the bill.

Asaduddin Owaisi said that Jagadambika Pal was “not only the mover (of the bill) but also the mover of my amendment, and he is raising his hand to oppose my amendment. This is a joke.”

“He is mover, he is opposer, everything…. this is obnoxious,” Owaisi said, criticizing the JPC chairperson.

Only one day to read report: Asaduddin Owaisi

Asaduddin Owaisi stated that the JPC’s proceedings are structured in a way that prevents the Opposition from reviewing the draft report and opposing any objectionable sections.

“Tomorrow (Tuesday), the draft report will be shared with us. How is it humanly possible for all the members of different political parties to read the draft report which will not be less than 500 pages and present the objections by the 29th (Wednesday), if they don’t agree with the report?” Owaisi asked.

“You are making a mockery of the parliamentary system”, he said.

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MPs do not get the time in the Parliament to speak about every clause in a bill. That is why standing committees or joint working committees are constituted,” Asaduddin Owaisi explained.

“Even in that committee, the opposition members are pushed against the wall,” he said, condemning the chairperson’s approach towards the opposition members of the JPC.

New Delhi: Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill Chairman Jagdambika Pal speaks to the media, in New Delhi, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. The Committee will discuss the clause-by-clause amendments, suggested by members of the parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill, at its meeting on Monday. (PTI Photo)(PTI01_27_2025_000032B) Wilful, wanton disregard by Jabadambika Pal: Opposition

Opposition MPs in their joint statement said, “As the committee has arrived at its closure part of the deliberation, we the members of the opposition registered our protest then and there both in conducting the proceedings of the JWC by the chairman as well the gross and serious deviations from the rules and procedures contemplated thereon.”

Citing several instances of being denied the time to study the documents, the MPs said they want to highlight a wilful and wanton disregard by the Chairman, BJP’s Jagadambika Pal in sharing the details of deliberations of the Committee.

Objecting to the haste in the panel’s proceedings on Monday, the MPs slammed the Chairman for going ahead with clause-by-clause considerations without documents/depositions.

“Ignoring our claims, the chairman himself called the names of the mover of the amendments (given by us) and he himself moved the amendments on our behalf and conducted the head counts on his own desire. And he announced the rejection of our amendments, thereby, our sincere efforts to protect the constitutional assurances given to the minorities are being defeated,” wrote the MPs.

The awkward and solo acting of the Chairman himself for all the stakeholders of today’s sitting made him a painter to enable the Union government to give saffron colour to this secular nation by using its brutal majority in the Parliament, the statement said.

TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, DMK’s A Raja, Shiv Sena UBT’s Arvind Sawant, and DMK’s Mohamed Abdulla during a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, in New Delhi. (@dmk_raja on X via PTI Photo)(PTI01_27_2025_000036B)

The signatories of the statement are Kalyan Banerjee, Mohammad Jawed, A. Raja, Gaurav Gogoi, Asaduddin Owaisi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Mohibbullah, M. Abdullah, Arvind Sawant, Nadimul Haque, and Imran Masood.

“We, the members of the opposition appeal to the people of India who stand for the constitutional values to come forward to preserve the labour and conviction put by our forefathers Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Vallabhbhai Patel and others in the national building process with secular credentials and to protect the rights of minorities ensuring the social harmony of this sub-continent,” said the joint statement.

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