Opposition members suspended from Parliamentary panel on Waqf bill

New Delhi, Jan 24: All opposition members of the parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill were suspended for a day on Friday amid continuous protests and accusations against Chairman Jagdambika Pal of steam-rolling through the proceedings.

The suspended members are Kalyan Banerjee, Mohammad Jawed, A Raja, Asaduddin Owaisi, Naseer Hussain, Mohib-ullah, Mohamed Abdullah, Arvind Sawant, Nadeem-ul Haque, Imran Masood.

BJP member Nishikant Dubey moved the motion for suspending the opposition members which was adopted by the committee,

BJP member Aparajita Sarangi claimed the conduct of opposition members was "disgusting" as they were continuously creating ruckus during the meeting and using unparliamentary language against Pal.

The meeting of the parliamentary committee began a stormy note, with opposition members claiming they were not being given adequate time to study the proposed changes to the draft legislation.

Before calling Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the religious head of Kashmir, the members of the Committee held discussions among themselves which turned stormy with opposition leaders claiming the BJP was pushing for speedy acceptance of the report on the Waqf Amendment Bill with an eye on the Delhi elections.

The heated arguments during the meeting led to a brief adjournment of the proceedings. The Mirwaiz-led delegation appeared before the Committee after it reconvened.

Trinamool member Kalyan Banerjee and Congress member Naseer Hussain stormed out of the meeting and told reporters that the proceedings of the committee had become a "farce".

They demanded that the meeting scheduled for January 27 for examining the proposed amendments clause-by-clause be deferred to January 30 or January 31.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on August 8, 2024 following its introduction in the Lok Sabha by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.

The bill aims to amend the Waqf Act, 1995, to address issues and challenges in regulating and managing waqf properties.