Waqf Bill panel: Opposition MPs to boycott five-state tour

Opposition members have decided to boycott the five-day tour of the Joint Committee on Waqf Amendment Bill, starting Saturday, 9 November, to hear views of diverse stakeholders on the matter.

All the opposition members of the JPC have decided to boycott the tour and its meetings as the chairman is working in an arbitrary and high-handed manner, Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Kalyan Banerjee told reporters at a press conference jointly addressed with party MP Nadimul Haque at the Press Club in Kolkata.

Opposition members accused committee chairman Jagdambika Pal of taking unilateral actions and visiting Karnataka to look into some "local matter".

'The Committee does not have investigation powers, its job is to look into the Bill alone. Moreover the Chairman cannot act unilaterally and the Committee has to act collectively,' AIMIM Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi said in a post on X.

He said the Committee had already visited Karnataka and held consultations with various stakeholders there.

'We are bound by parliamentary procedure so we aren't in a position to explain the questionable conduct of the Chairman since the formation of the Committee. I hope the Lok Sabha Speaker will take notice of the Chairman's behaviour,' Owaisi said.

Banerjee said the Committee's chairman has fixed a hectic schedule of meetings in Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow over six days beginning Saturday.

He said the opposition members of the JPC met the Lok Sabha Speaker on 5 November and sought deferment of the schedule and also reduction in the number of days of JPC meetings from twice a week to once a week or two consecutive days every fortnight.

On Saturday, the Committee will begin its five-state tour from Guwahati, where it will have informal interactions with representatives of the ministry of minority affairs and law and justice of Assam, the state minority commission and that of the waqf boards of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura.

The panel will also meet representatives of the bar council and lawyers' associations, muttawalli (waqf managers') associations and other stakeholders.

The Committee will have discussions with similar groups of stakeholders in Bhubaneswar (11 November), West Bengal (12 November), Bihar (13 November) and Lucknow (14 November).