With political controversy over the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, at the centre, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, has now claimed that the Bill was a "requirement of time".
The Joint Parliamentary Committee is getting ready to meet for the first time on Thursday to debate the Waqf Amendment Bill introduced by the Modi government during the recently concluded Parliament session.
The bill is very significant for the BJP, and with the party's strategists wanting it to be passed in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, much depends on how fast the parliamentary panel works. However, much depends on the JPC report. The BJP needs to get not only opposition parties onboard but also allies like Chandrababu Naidu and Chirag Paswan on its side for passage of the bill.
"The whole system of Waqf Board has to come out of the 'touch me not' politics." This entire system of Waqf Board, he told IANS exclusively, will have to come out of the 'touch me not' politics. The government has brought the bill to make the waqf system better, he said.
Answering questions raised by opposition parties and some allies, Mr Naqvi said, "This is not the first time that Waqf laws would be amended as such amendments were made during the tenure of the Congress and during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.". The Bill brought in by the government should be debated, discussed and analysed in detail, and that is why it has been sent to the JPC. The JPC is a constitutional body and this Bill should be discussed with an open mind at its meetings. Whatever arguments any political party has will come up in the meetings of the JPC," Naqvi told IANS.
He said that opposing the 'attempts' to give a communal color to the Bill, many questions are being raised about it and an attempt is made to confuse it, and hence it is sent to the JPC for thorough discussion while taking all the views into consideration.
He said that this amendment was the need of the hour and it should not be assumed that someone is being attacked or that this Bill is against someone.
"Both Hindus and Muslims are the stakeholder in this matter which should be made clear to everyone," he said.
Opposition parties vehemently opposed as Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju moved the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the Lok Sabha on August 8. NDA allies JD-U, TDP and Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde extended support to the Bill.
TDP MP Ganti Harish Madhur stated his party will not have any issue if the Bill is referred to a parliamentary committee.
Only after lots of pressure from the demand of the allies and the opposition parties did the government finally propose to send this Bill to the JPC for detailed discussion.
This composition of the joint panel of both Houses set up to discuss the Waqf Amendment Bill has 31 MPs—21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha—with various parties, including the opposition.
The chairman of the JPC is BJP MP Jagdambika Pal. On August 22, its first sitting will be attended by officials from the Ministry of Minority Affairs, who will apprise the house of all the details related to the Waqf Amendment Bill with proposed amendments.
The meeting will also be attended by officials of the Department of Legislative and Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Law and Justice to clarify the legal aspects of the Bill.
After discussions, the report of the JPC will be tabled on the last day of the first week of the next Parliament session.
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