Feb 04, 2025 07:52 AM IST
They alleged that the committee ignored representations from stakeholders, depositions of witnesses, and submissions from Opposition members.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers Kalyan Banerjee and Nadimul Haque on Monday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleging that key portions of their dissent notes submitted to the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 were expunged without their knowledge.
The JPC, chaired by senior BJP lawmaker Jagdambika Pal, adopted its report on the contentious legislation with a majority vote on January 29, days after adopting the changes proposed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) members and rejecting those suggested by Opposition members. The report was submitted to the Lok Sabha speaker on January 30 and it will be tabled in Parliament after approval from Birla and the business advisory committee.
“To our dismay and utter surprise, we found that the following objectives and dissent notes have been deleted by the Chairman without informing us and without our consent,” the TMC MPs wrote in a letter to Birla on Monday.
They alleged that the committee ignored representations from stakeholders, depositions of witnesses, and submissions from Opposition members. “The whole exercise of collecting evidence and consulting stakeholders was made meaningless,” the letter added.
Criticising the procedural lapses, the TMC MPs alleged that the minutes of the meetings were manipulated. “The minutes were made as per the dictation of the Chairperson and do not paint the true picture of the JPC meetings,” they said in the letter.
They argued that none of their comments were unparliamentary or inappropriate. “If your good self goes through the dissent notes submitted by us, you will find that not a single expression or phrase is unparliamentary, irrelevant, or otherwise inappropriate which gives the power to the Chairperson to delete or expunge,” the letter said, urging the Lok Sabha speaker to reinstate the deleted sections of their dissent notes.
The TMC lawmakers are not the only members from the 31-strong JPC to raise the allegations of deletion from their dissent notes. Earlier, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had also levelled similar charges and accused panel chief Pal of misusing rules.
“I had submitted a detailed dissent note to the Joint Committee against the Waqf Amendment Bill. It is shocking that parts of my note were redacted without my knowledge. The deleted sections were not controversial; they only stated facts,” Owaisi wrote in a series of posts on X on January 31.
Sharing two sets of documents, in what he described as his original dissent note and the retracted version for the public to read, the Hyderabad MP alleged: “The Chairman Jagdambika Pal got the report he wanted, but why stifle the opposition’s voice? Since he misused a rule to alter my report, I will soon release my complete dissent note for the public to read.”
The JPC Chairman, meanwhile, said the final report was prepared after consulting various stakeholders, including the waqf board, the minority commission, government officials, and Islamic scholars. “The Opposition earlier misled the JPC by claiming that passing this Bill would result in the seizure of all Waqf properties. Now, they are extending this narrative nationwide as part of their appeasement strategy,” Pal said.
“The Opposition has registered its dissent on 281 pages of the report. However, when the report is presented in Parliament, these dissenting views will also be included. This demonstrates the due process followed in a parliamentary democracy,” Pal said.
