Suspended MPs say House panel on Waqf being run in dictatorial manner

“This is nothing but dictatorship. I am not aware of any precedent of suspensions from JPCs. They have formed a JPC but want to do things their own way. They want to call MPs based on their whims and fancies and that we should be available like their domestic help. Should we now celebrate January 26 with them? We have to celebrate with our family, with people of our constituencies,” Congress MP Mohammed Jawed, who was among the suspended committee members, told The Indian Express.

Terming the functioning of the panel as “unconstitutional”, Jawed alleged, “You get people who have no stake in the matter to depose. You create awareness through WhatsApp forwards. The way things are happening is totally unconstitutional. What is saddening is that he (Chairman) is such a senior MP, but still takes dictations from the top. Every five minutes he gets a phone call and then changes his decisions.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant said, “You are insisting the next meeting will happen on January 27. Why? We are saying keep it for January 31. They said no. There is time between February 13 and March 10. So wait. This will give us time. Your objective is to table the report in this session. It will be fulfilled. But no, they kept insisting they have to prepare the report by January 27.”

“It now appears the Chairman has become a tool. He gets calls from above that it has to be done. Why? Because there are polls in Delhi. BJP cannot think beyond polls. They don’t care if the country is thrown into riots and anarchy. See what happened in Sambhal. There are laws protecting structures… but they want to override everything. Then why are you offering chadar at Ajmer. Then they say we are doing vote jihad,” he said. “We kept requesting you to give more time, but you are not ready. You have become a dictator.”

Explaining how the row broke out, he said, “This JPC is being run in a distorted way. You just had a four-day tour till January 21. On the last day you suddenly asked us to give you our clause-by-clause amendments to the Bill by 4 pm, January 22. This is an important Bill. It has to be thought through. We said give us some time. The Chairman did not agree. We all stayed awake all night to meet the deadline. Then you kept the meeting for January 24-25 despite members asking you to defer it.”

“When we arrived in Delhi, rescheduling all our public programmes for January 26, 27 and 28, you said there will be no meeting and that the next meeting will happen on January 27,” he said.

Sawant said the Chairman deliberately called in the Kashmir delegation even while MPs were discussing the date for next meeting. “We were still talking about the dates when the Chairman called in the Kashmir delegation. Obviously the expectation was that we would sit quietly. They are always playing a game. Our issue has not been addressed and still you are calling them. They just want their interests to be served. We are going to stand against this dictatorship. That is why we have been suspended,” Sawant alleged.

SP MP Mohibullah said he learnt of his suspension after he had left the meeting venue because of poor health.

“While I was with the Opposition MPs and had raised my objections to the date of the next meeting, I was not involved in protesting and sloganeering inside the meeting venue as I was unwell. I even left early,” he said.

He said the way the panel was being run it appeared the government wanted to get its way. “Around Republic Day public representatives have a busy schedule. So we were requesting to postpone the date of meeting. But we feel they want to get things done by putting pressure on us. It appears they want to hold our necks, tie our hands and legs and then make us give our assent to the provisions in the Bill,” he alleged.

TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee said members had earlier requested Pal to defer meetings due to their commitments in their constituencies. Pal had assured them he would look into it, he said.

“However, nothing happened. We were told a meeting will be held on January 24-25 for clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill. We all came. At midnight yesterday we were told the clause-by-clause meeting will not happen on January 24 as a delegation from Kashmir is coming. Then they said this meeting will happen on January 27. We objected. We said the House will start on January 31 and we all have commitments in our constituencies,” he said.