Congress president and Rajya Sabha LoP, Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday repudiated the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on Waqf calling it ‘farzi’. He also urged Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to return the report to the JPC.
Kharge said, ” We will never accept such farzi report.” He alleged that the dissent note by opposition members in the JPC has been removed. The allegations drew a massive objection from the treasury bench. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Kharge demanded that the report be sent back and reintroduced only after incorporating all dissenting opinions.
Kharge said, “In the JPC report on the Waqf Board, many members have their dissent report… It is not right to remove those notes and bulldoze our views… This is anti-democracy… I condemn any report that has been presented after deleting the dissent reports. We will never accept such fake reports… If the report does not have dissent views, it should be sent back and presented again… “
Amid uproar, the Rajya Sabha Chairman said that no dissent note was removed from the JPC report. During the heated debate, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju accused the Opposition of misleading the House and disrupting parliamentary proceedings. “The Opposition should not mislead the House,” Rijiju asserted, as ruling party members countered the protests.
Rijiju said, “I have checked the concerns raised by the Opposition. There is no deletion or removal from the report. Everything is on the floor of the House. On what basis can such an issue be raised? The members of the Opposition are creating an unnecessary issue, which is not a fact. The allegation is false. The JPC conducted entire proceedings as per the rules… All the Opposition members of the JPC participated in all the proceedings in the last 6 months… All the dissent notes are attached in the Appendix of the report… They cannot mislead the House…”
Notably, the JPC report on the Waqf Amendment Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha today. It was initially scheduled to be presented during the Winter Session but was delayed to allow the committee to complete its assessment, particularly in northern regions. The findings include inputs from various stakeholders, along with dissenting opinions where applicable.