Waqf bill report tabled in Parliament, Opposition walks out in protest

Report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was tabled on Thursday by the joint committee in the Rajya Sabha amid an uproar in Parliament by opposition parties, leading to their walkout from the House.

The Rajya Sabha was briefly adjourned amid the chaos caused by the opposition.

The report was tabled by BJP member Medha Vishram Kulkarni, who is a member of the Waqf JPC.

Opposition MPs, led by Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, alleged that dissent notes were deleted from the report. This charge was later denied by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.

The uproar was still continuing when Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar tried to read out a message from President Droupadi Murmu.

Vice President Dhankhar said, “Don’t show disrespect to the President of India,” and urged Kharge to ask opposition members to take their seats.

As the uproar continued, the Upper House was adjourned till 11:20 a.m.

When the Upper House reconvened, the Chairman read out the President’s message, stating that she had received the expression of thanks from Rajya Sabha members for her address to a joint sitting of Parliament on January 31.

When the Chairman tried to proceed with the Zero Hour, opposition members continued to protest, and some MPs trooped into the well of the House.

Leader of the House JP Nadda regretted that the Rajya Sabha was not in order when the President’s message was read out.

Chairman Dhankhar said that 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 had been redacted.

“The report of the joint committee of Parliament on Waqf, in which several members had given their dissent notes, has been altered. Bulldozing the report by only keeping the views of the majority members is not right. It is condemnable and anti-democratic,” he said.

Calling it a “fake report,” he said it should be withdrawn and sent back to a committee.

The MPs are not protesting 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.

With inputs from PTI