New Delhi: Opposition members in the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf Amendment bill on Friday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to instruct the panel's chairman Jagdambika Pal not to rush through the proceedings and postpone the panel's meeting slated on January 27.
The panel members, some of whom were earlier suspended from the committee for a day for creating unruly scenes, said they were only raising their demand for postponing the scheduled meeting and demanded a probe under Supreme Court supervision on the chairman allegedly "acting at the behest" of higher-ups.
They also urged the Speaker to instruct Pal to hold the JPC meetings in a fair and transparent manner without departure from rules and procedure.
"It is therefore prayed that the Chairman of the JPC may kindly be instructed to conduct the proceedings in a transparent and fair manner. The Chairman should postpone the 27th meeting so that the opposition members can get the adequate time and opportunity to put forth our plea/claims without any departure from the rules and procedure to ensure the Parliament democracy on which the Nation still has faith," the opposition members said in a three-page letter signed by all of them.
The suspended members are Kalyan Banerjee and Nadeem-ul Haque (Trinamool Congress), Mohammad Jawed, Imran Masood and Syed Naseer Hussain (Congress), A Raja and Mohamed Abdullah (DMK), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Mohibullah (SP) and Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT).
The members, in their letter to Birla, said the amendments proposed in the Waqf bill are not only "connected with the huge land banks of the Waqf boards across the country, but also relevant to the judicial pronouncements of the high courts /Supreme Court thereon; and statutes and rules enacted by various state governments in this regard are also in challenge whereby conflict of interest has arisen thereto".
"... Rushing through the proceedings of JPC without application of mind by the chairman is nothing but a riddle wrapped with hidden malice. It is our opinion that the chairman of a JPC does not have the power to suspend the members of the Committee," they wrote.
They said during the study tour of the JPC on January 21 at Lucknow, a prayer was made to adjourn the sitting to January 30 (full day) and January 31 after the Presidential Address in Parliament, since it would not be practically possible to get back to Delhi again after the dispersal of JPC on 21st and collect the materials /evidences for discussion.
Since there was no response from the chairman, A Raja wrote on behalf of opposition MPs on January 22 requesting for postponement of JPC to January 30 and 31 instead of January 24 and 25.
The chairman maintained total silence on their request, they alleged, adding that they also urged him that depositions/evidences collected in tour programme from stakeholders should be circulated to members.
"For the reasons best known to him our reasonable prayer for postponement of the sitting of the JPC on 24th and 25th January 2025 has been ruthlessly ignored by the Chairman," the letter stated.
Raja later told reporters that the chairperson gave an interview that on January 25 they will do clause by clause consideration of the bill and draft report will be placed before the JPC on January 29.
"Where is the procedure? Proceedings are being conducted with unilateral decision and administrative atrocity coupled with a ruthless manner by the chairman," he alleged.
He urged the Speaker to instruct the chairman to change his attitude, give fair opportunity to all, consult Opposition members in deciding dates and fixing agendas and duration of the discussions. "All of this must be transparently done," Raja said.
Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said, "It has never been seen that 10 opposition members were suspended from the JPC at once. Opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament and now the same process was seen in the committee." He claimed that the dates of the committee meetings are announced without giving prior notice.
Gogoi said, "It seems that a pre-determined framework is being followed and the rules of parliamentary procedures are being violated." "The phase which was to be discussed and the answers to the questions were to be studied, leaving that phase behind, it has been decided to have a clause-wise discussion. We have opposed this," Gogoi said.
Kalyan Banerjee claimed the opposition members were insulted by the committee and there was a hurry to accept the report in view of the Delhi elections.
"Chairman acting at the behest of someone, he is just like a doll. The parliamentary procedure has been made into a mockery. There should be an investigation appointed by Supreme Court from where are the instructions coming. The chairman has no backbone," he said.
Naseer Hussain (Congress) said whatever has been said by those who appeared before the committee needs to be studied in detail. He questioned whether this has been done in a hurry for the Delhi elections.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, "This is a very sensitive issue. If the government bulldozes it and passes it in Parliament, it will have a very bad effect."
He said, "It is regrettable to say that the process being adopted is wrong. Wakf properties will be destroyed." "We oppose the process that has been adopted. We request the Lok Sabha Speaker to intervene in this matter," Owaisi said.
Later in a post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote: "10 Opposition MPs have written to the Lok Sabha Speaker protesting against the brazenly undemocratic manner in which the JPC on the Waqf Amendment Bill is being made to function. 2 more Opposition MPs who could not attend today's meeting have associated themselves with the letter."
