
Several Members of Parliament from opposition parties boycotted a meeting of a joint parliamentary committee on Monday citing issues with the functioning of the panel. The members alleged that a presentation by Anwar Manippadi, former Chairman of Karnataka State Minorities Commission and Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation, was not about the Waqf Bill.
They alleged that Anwar is making unnecessary allegations against Karnataka Government and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, which is not in accordance with the committee and not acceptable.
According to reports, the Opposition members will be writing a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, seeking intervention because they feel the forum was used to level charges against the Opposition.
The protesting legislators who stormed out of the meeting were Gaurav Gogoi and Imran Masood of the Congress, A Raja of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, the Samajwadi Party’s Mohibbullah and Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Simultaneously, the Kerala Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Monday urging the central government to withdraw the 2024 Waqf Bill. Minister for Waqf, Haj pilgrimage, and sports, V Abdurahiman, presented the resolution, stating that the bill undermines the federal principles enshrined in the Constitution.
The bill proposed to amend 44 sections of the 1995 Waqf Act, most of them seen as unnecessary and unconstitutional by critics of BJP regime and opposition parties.
Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the largest Muslim body in India, delegation presented during the meeting sharing their concerns on the Waqf Bill’s impact on Waqf properties & Muslim rights.
The majority of Muslim organisations have rejected the new proposed amendment of the Waqf bill. On August 8, the Waqf Amendment Bill was sent to the parliamentary committee for scrutiny following objections from Opposition parties after the draft legislation was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
The panel had sought written suggestions from the public, experts, non-governmental organisations and institutions, among others, on the draft legislation. It received more than 1.2 crore email responses, according to reports, infuriating Hindutva groups and instigating a new Islamophobic trope of “Email Jihad”.
Muslim outfits launched a massive campaign to reject the bill, appealing to people to email their objections to the bill. Delegations have met MPs to lobby against the bill that allegedly strips off the power of Waqf boards.