Jagdambika Pal, chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, accused Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee of using “unparliamentary” language against him.
He said the house was adjourned twice due to the ruckus created by the opposition leaders who have been suspended from the JPC meeting.
Pal said BJP MP Nishikant Dubey moved a motion to suspend the opposition MPs for creating a ‘ruckus’ after they started ‘shouting’ and ‘sloganeering’ and not allowing the meeting to continue.
"We adjourned the house twice. We had given time to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on the suggestions of the opposition only. Kalyan Banerjee used unparliamentary words against me and abused me. I kept requesting him to let the invitees speak.”
But they were adamant to create a ruckus. We adjourned the house again and again but they didn’t want the meeting to continue. From Jammu and Kashmir, a delegation had come but they were shouting and sloganeering...so finally Nishikant Dubey had to move a motion and everyone agreed to suspend them,” Jagdambika Pal said.
To allegations of changing the subject of the notice for the JPC sitting, Pal said the agenda was changed only for today and on the request of the opposition who wanted Kashmiri cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to be invited to the meeting.
"We changed the agenda for today only on the request of the opposition leaders who contacted me saying that Mirwaiz should be invited and shifted today's agenda (to hold a discussion clause-by-clause to January 27," Pal added.
To allegations of rushing the proceedings for the JPC meeting owing to Delhi assembly elections, the senior BJP leader said it was Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju who urged the speaker to refer the bill to JPC and not the opposition.
"If the government wanted to hasten things, why would it refer the bill to JPC? The government has a majority in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The opposition didn't, but Kiren Rijiju, after introducing it in the Parliament, himself urged the speaker to refer the bill to JPC," Pal said, adding, "Mirwaiz and his delegation expressed their concerns and raised objections to certain sections (of the bill). This shows that the parliamentary democracy in the country is being strengthened."
Earlier in the day, all the Opposition MPs who are part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill were suspended from today’s sitting.
The suspended MPs are Mohammad Jawaid, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP A Raja, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Nasir Hussain, Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs MohibbullahNadvi, M. Abdullah, Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs Arvind Sawant, Nadimul Haque & Congress MP Imran Masood.
