The Rajya Sabha saw a heated turmoil on Thursday when the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was presented, resulting in a brief adjournment after a heated debate between the government and the opposition.
Opposition Leader Mallikarjun Kharge and other opposition members charged that their dissent notes had been left out of the report—a charge vehemently denied by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
The report was given by BJP MP Medha Vishram Kulkarni, a panel member. But soon the session got out of control as opposition members burst into protests.
During the commotion, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar tried to read out a message from President Droupadi Murmu but was continuously interrupted by the protests. Requesting the members to remain calm and respect the President, he finally adjourned the session till 11:20 AM.
On resumption, Dhankhar read the President's message of gratitude to the Rajya Sabha's vote of thanks to her address to Parliament on January 31. Opposition MPs resumed their protests though, with some running into the well of the House, which again delayed proceedings.
House Leader JP Nadda was disappointed that the disruptions had not even stopped during the reading of the President's address. Dhankhar also identified MPs Samirul Islam, Nadimul Haque, and M. Mohamed Abdulla for their involvement in the disturbances.
When allowed to speak, Kharge criticized what he referred to as the "deliberate exclusion" of opposition views from the report as undemocratic and unacceptable.
"The opposition’s views have been completely ignored. The report has been bulldozed to reflect only the majority’s stance. This is against democratic principles and cannot be accepted," Kharge declared, demanding that the report be withdrawn and reconsidered by the committee.
He further asserted that the opposition’s protest was not about individual grievances but about the larger issue of injustice being imposed on a community.
DMK MP Tiruchi Siva and AAP MP Sanjay Singh also protested the alleged exclusion of dissenting opinions.
Rijiju, however, called the allegations baseless.
"No part of the report has been deleted or changed. These allegations are totally false and misleading," he claimed.
Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Nirmala Sitharaman also charged the opposition with spreading disinformation, which led to another round of hot exchanges.
Congress MP Syed Nasir Hussain specifically blamed Rijiju, who is also the Union Minority Affairs Minister, for misleading the House and said that his own dissent note had been deleted from the report.
TMC MP Saket Gokhale said that the question was not religious but constitutional in nature.
Rijiju remained adamant that the report was with all annexures and was not tampered with.
In wake of this, opposition MPs walked out in protest, following which the House carried on business with the Question Hour.
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