'Humiliated': Suspended Oppn MPs To LS Speaker Om Birla After Waqf Bill Meet

Tensions flared during a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Amendment Bill on Friday, as ten opposition members were suspended for a day. The opposition MPs accused the committee's chairperson, BJP leader Jagdambika Pal, of suspending them abruptly after a phone call with an unidentified individual.

What MPs Say About The Incident?

The suspended MPs, representing parties like Congress, DMK, AIMIM, TMC, SP, and Shiv Sena (UBT), penned a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, expressing their grievances. They alleged that Pal ignored their calls to postpone the meeting, humiliated them, and sidelined parliamentary procedures.

"When the meeting started today at 11.00 AM, we the members of the opposition vehemently raised our voice with utmost respect against the way of conducting the business by the Chairman. We highlighted the unilateral as well as unfair manner of functioning of JPC by ignoring the due process contemplated in the rules. It is respectfully submitted that since the erstwhile served notice scheduled for the meeting on 24th and 25th, we the members designed our programmes in the Constituency/States from 27 to 30th as the Parliament Session starts on 31st and thereby prayed for postponement of the 27th meeting," they wrote in the letter.

The MPs also questioned Pal's authority to suspend committee members and demanded that future meetings be conducted transparently and fairly. They called for adequate time to discuss their concerns and urged the Speaker to intervene.

"A comprehensive study is essentially needed by the JPC to address these issues raised by stakeholders in a holistic manner. In these circumstances rushing the proceedings of the JPC without application of the mind by the Chairman is nothing but a riddle wrapped with hidden malice," they added.

Allegations Of Using Abusive Language

Earlier, BJP member Nishikant Dubey moved a motion for the suspension of the opposition members, which the committee adopted. Pal later accused TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee of using abusive language during the meeting.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, seeks to amend the Waqf Act, 1995, to address challenges in managing Waqf properties. The bill was referred to the JPC in August for detailed scrutiny, but the ongoing friction has raised questions about the panel's functioning.