 "Minority affairs ministry gives presentation on Waqf bill, oppn MPs protest")
The Minorities Affairs Ministry on Monday made an extensive presentation at a parliamentary panel meeting to address the queries of MPs on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, with some opposition members arguing that the ministry's consultations over the years never called for a new law.
A batch of petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the insertion of words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Constitution in 1976 also cast a shadow on the meeting as heated words were exchanged after opposition MPs questioned the panel's decision to seek depositions from some lawyers behind the plea, drawing reaction from BJP members.
A BJP MP said all Indians are stakeholders in any proposed law, and the committee in its wisdom can call anyone it deems fit to offer any valuable suggestion. The Waqf law has impacted a large number of non-Muslims, he claimed.
Advocates Ashwini Upadhyay, a BJP member, and Vishnu Shankar Jain are among those behind the SC pleas. They had last week appeared before the committee headed by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal.
During the ministry's presentation, some MPs claimed that the minutes of consultation it had held in the run-up to the decision to amend the Waqf Act had made no mention of the need for a new law to override the existing statute.
A couple of opposition MPs claimed that the ministry in its last meeting over the issue in November last year had suggested administrative and technological measures to deal with complications arising out of the Act.
BJP MP Medha Kulkarni, a member of the committee, submitted to Pal an application from Pune-based NGO Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat about 19 cases of the state Waqf board claiming properties belonging to others.
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"From all the cases it is clear that the Waqf board is misusing its power and troubling the common people irrespective of religion," she said.
She also shared a representation by Ismaili Muslims, who have objected to the their community being addressed as "Aga Khanis", a colloquial term, in the bill.