Oppn members hit out: Waqf panel an 'eyewash'

Opposition members on Wednesday alleged that several provisions in the revised draft of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 undermine the federal structure, and expressed concerns over the process followed by the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) that overlooked their amendments before adopting the report.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI:

The Opposition MPs submitted their dissent notes to the report, adopted by the JPC headed by BJP's Jagdambika Pal on Wednesday, containing the changes proposed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) members to the contentious legislation.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers Kalyan Banerjee and Nadimul Haque in their dissent notes are learnt to have termed the entire proceeding of the JPC as "eyewash and farce". Stating that the bill violates not only the basic structure but also the federal structure of the Constitution, they also criticised chairperson Pal for violating the members' rights to oppose the bill, people familiar with the matter said.

In his dissent note, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi apparently said that changing the name of the Waqf Act, 1995 to "Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995" in the revised bill "hides an agenda of systematically weakening the legislative architecture regulating waqfs in India".