Opposition MPs boycott Waqf panel meeting

New Delhi : Several opposition MPs on Monday boycotted a meeting of the parliamentary committee examining the Waqf (Amendment) Bill alleging that the panel is not functioning in accordance with rules, after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was accused of being involved in Waqf land scams. The lengthy meetings of the Joint Committee of Parliament have been marked by the exchange of heated words between its BJP and opposition members, and things turned especially stormy on Monday as the latter questioned the rationale behind calling members of Hindu groups for deposition on a law concerning Muslims.

Opposition MPs walked out in protest against the submission of Anwar Manippady, a former chairman of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission and the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation.

He is also a former Karnataka BJP vice-president. Manippady named several Congress leaders from Karnataka, including Kharge and Rehman Khan, and others for their alleged involvement in embezzling Waqf properties. The opposition MPs cited rules regulating the parliamentary committees’ proceedings to claim that “unproven allegations” against “high dignitaries” cannot be made at the meetings of these panels.

Manippady, they said, also made an appeal to Muslims not to oppose the Bill, which too was out of line. An opposition MP said allegations cannot be levelled against someone who is not there to defend himself. The chairperson of the committee, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jagdambika Pal, however, overruled their objections and allowed the deposition to continue. A BJP member said the deposition was relevant to the Bill as Manippady’s claims pertained to Waqf properties. Opposition MPs, including Gaurav Gogoi and Imran Masood of the Congress, A Raja of the DMK, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT), AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, Samajwadi Party’s Mohibbullah and Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party, stormed out of the meeting and expressed strong sentiments against its proceedings. The committee is not functioning in accordance with rules and regulations, Sawant told reporters. The opposition members held a separate meeting later to decide their next course of action.

They are expected to write to the Lok Sabha speaker on Tuesday over the panel’s functioning. The committee had called several organisations and activists associated with Hindu causes for deposition, a move that drew protest from the opposition members.