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Rijiju hails Waqf Bill consultation, Dubey seeks probe into 12.5 million replies
Parliament’s joint committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill will submit its report within the stipulated time, Union minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said on Wednesday.
Parliament’s joint committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill will submit its report within the stipulated time, Union minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said on Wednesday, as he hailed the consultation process by the panel as the “most extensive in the history of the country’s parliamentary democracy”.
The remarks came even as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Nishikant Dubey expressed concern over nearly 12.5 million public submissions received by the parliamentary panel reviewing the waqf bill, and called for a probe into possible involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and China.
“I feel the way and at the speed at which Parliament’s joint committee is functioning, they should be able to table the report of the joint parliamentary committee as stipulated in the rule in the terms of reference...the committee has to submit the report before the last day of the first week of the Winter Session. They will fulfil it,” Rijiju said, while addressing a press conference on the first 100 days of the ministry in the third Narendra Modi-led government.
The joint committee led by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal has so far held 11 meetings and is scheduled to submit its report in the first week of the winter session, which is expected to commence in November.
Asked about Dubey raising concerns over the nearly 12.5 million feedback submissions received by the parliamentary panel, Rijiju said, “I can’t comment on the functioning of the joint parliamentary committee. It has been empowered, how mails have come in and in what circumstances that the JPC will look into.”
He, however, said the consultation process undertaken by the committee is the most extensive in the history of the country’s parliamentary democracy.
Dubey, who is a member of the joint committee, has written to Pal seeking an investigation to cover the possible roles of fundamentalist organisations, individuals like radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, and foreign powers such as the ISI and China and their proxies.
The BJP MP has maintained that the geographical origins of these submissions need immediate attention, claiming it is statistically improbable that such an overwhelming volume response could emerge organically from within India alone. He described the volume of feedback as “unprecedented”.
A parliamentary panel scrutinising a bill invites public response to the proposed legislation.
(With PTI inputs)
