Waqf Bill | JPCs only for show, govt using these to push agenda: Oppn

Over the past two terms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was often accused of bulldozing key laws through Parliament by subverting the process of scrutiny that important legislations conventionally went through by various parliamentary committees.

Now, in its third term, is the Modi government seeking to legitimise its controversial legislative agenda through the same parliamentary oversight committees it stridently avoided till eight months ago?

The bitter experience of 11 Opposition MPs who are part of the 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) tasked with examining the Centre’s contentious Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024 certainly suggests so.

Opposition objections

The Bill, which seeks to radically change how Waqf Boards across the country and the properties under their jurisdiction are administered, was referred to the JPC in August moments after it was introduced in the Lok Sabha.

When the Bill was introduced in the Lower House, Opposition MPs had variously called the law “unconstitutional”, “communally polarising”, “violative of several fundamental rights”, and “an attempt at usurping Waqf properties”.

On Monday (January 27), the JPC approved key changes to the Waqf Bill proposed by the MPs of the ruling NDA coalition while rejecting all amendments sought by the 11 Opposition members. And on Wednesday (January 29), the committee approved its final report on the Bill for tabling in parliament despite Opposition MPs submitting dissent notes.

Pushing “government agenda”

The JPC’s chairman, BJP MP Jagdambika Pal — accused of acting “unilaterally” to “push the government’s agenda” by Opposition members throughout the committee’s six-month existence — told reporters that the panel had concluded its consultations in a “democratic” manner and accepted the suggestions “made by the majority”.

All changes moved by the 11 Opposition members of the committee to the 44 clauses of the original Waqf Act that the 2024 Bill amended “fell through” because “16 MPs (from the ruling side) voted against them”, Pal told the media after Monday’s JPC meeting concluded.

Shortly afterwards, the 10 Opposition MPs — A Raja, Kalyan Banerjee, Gaurav Gogoi, Asaduddin Owaisi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Mohibullah, Imran Masood, MM Abdulla, Mohammed Jawed, Arvind Sawant, and Nadimul Haque — released a joint statement accused Pal of “gross and serious deviations from the rules and procedures” and listed out various instances of “wilful and wanton disregard by the chairman in sharing the details of deliberations of the Committee”.

Also read: Waqf Amendment Bill infringes on religious freedom: Senior journalist

A few hours to read, understand, propose changes

Notwithstanding the Opposition’s protests, Pal convened a meeting of the JPC on Wednesday to adopt the committee’s draft report — which has now been done.

That was despite the Opposition members’ allegation that the draft report, running into 665 pages, was sent to them only late Tuesday evening, leaving them with little time to study the changes approved by the committee a day earlier.

“How are we supposed to read, understand and propose changes to something so important in just a few hours? It’s impossible and they know it. This is how the BJP operates — rushing through processes, silencing voices and pushing their agenda to take control of Waqf properties. This isn’t just about land, it’s about our rights, our identity and our community’s future. We can’t let this happen. We have to stand up and oppose this together,” JPC member and Congress MP Mohammed Jawed posted on X on Tuesday evening.

“Mockery” of system

Jawed later told The Federal, “The way the JPC proceedings were conducted and the draft report was prepared makes a mockery of the system of parliamentary scrutiny of important laws... The only purpose this exercise has achieved is to potentially legitimise an unconstitutional Bill through the pretence of putting it through scrutiny of a JPC.”

He added that if only the “ruling side’s suggestions were to be accepted and all Opposition suggestions were to be thrown into the dustbin”, why did the government even set up a JPC? “You could have just bulldozed the Bill through Parliament like you did with so many other Bills over the past 10 years,” he fumed.

Also read: Discussion I 'Waqf Bill will have a devastating effect on Muslims'

Another JPC member, Samajwadi Party MP Mohibullah, told The Federal that the Opposition had “hoped for a thorough examination of the Bill to arrive at a progressive law that brings good reforms to the administration of Waqf without undermining the fundamental rights granted by the Constitution to Muslims.

He alleged, “What we saw, unfortunately, was a completely undemocratic and unconstitutional set-up for a predetermined conclusion in line with exactly what (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and the Sangh Parivar want, which is to humiliate Muslims.”

“Intimidation” of Opposition MPs

Another Opposition MP who did not wish to be named said, “Pal’s conduct of the JPC proceedings from day one was biased in favour of the government… On multiple occasions, Opposition members pleaded with the Lok Sabha Speaker (Om Birla) and even wrote formal letters urging him to rein in the JPC chairman and instruct him to act as per rules and procedures but clearly the Speaker did not do what was expected of him.”

This MP alleged that Pal “allowed BJP MPs (on the panel) to intimidate Opposition MPs during JPC meetings, leading to angry arguments”. Even the chairman provoked Opposition MPs, he said.

“On January 24, Pal acted like a dictator and suspended 10 of us from the day’s session and when the JPC met again on January 27, he suddenly said he would conclude discussions on that day and then began moving amendments on our behalf before announcing that all our amendments had been rejected... it was all a farce,” said the MP

Government “using majority” in parliamentary committees

Three other Opposition members The Federal spoke to did not want to share details of the changes they had sought to the proposed law saying JPC discussions were “privileged information”.

All of them, however, were unanimous in asserting that the Modi government was “using its majority even in parliamentary committees to muzzle the Opposition” and “trying to get a fake stamp of approval on unconstitutional laws by putting up a show of following the process of scrutiny by JPCs, standing and select committees”.

Also read: Panel clears Waqf bill with 14 amendments, all proposed by NDA MPs

“All parliamentary committees, including JPCs, always have a majority of MPs from the ruling side because the representation a party gets in these panels is based on their strength in Parliament,” Congress MP and Waqf JPC member Imran Masood told The Federal.

“But once a committee is formed, the democratic thing to do is set aside partisan politics and scrutinise the laws objectively so that the country benefits from progressive laws; the onus is on the ruling side to accept good suggestions from the Opposition. The approach that only suggestions from their side will go in the final report because they have a majority and everything the Opposition said will be rejected defeats the purpose with which parliamentary committees were envisaged,” Masood added.

New ways to “destroy democracy”

Masood claimed that the BJP, which suffered electoral losses in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls because of the Opposition’s success in convincing the electorate that a brute majority for Modi will lead to a “change of the Constitution”, is now “finding new ways to undermine the Constitution and destroy democracy”.

“For the past 10 years, they had a brute majority and didn’t bother to send any important laws to any parliamentary committee, but now, because they want to make a fake show of respect for Constitution and democracy, they are eager to send Bills to JPCs and other committees but their intention is not to strengthen the country with good laws... They only want to use these committees as a cover-up so that when they try to pass laws like the Waqf Bill, they can claim it has gone through all processes of consultation and scrutiny. We can only hope the country will see through this drama, and I assure you that the Congress will expose the BJP’s true agenda,” Masood said.

With another JPC currently examining the controversial Bill for rolling out simultaneous polls (One Nation, One Election), Opposition MPs say the outcome of that panel’s deliberations will also be “exactly what the government wants it to be”.