Budget session roiled by Waqf storm, deepens govt, Oppn divide – tariffs to Birla, Sonia row

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the discussion on the Waqf Bill in the Rajya Sabha, which lasted for 17 hours and 2 minutes, created a new record. “One important milestone that we have achieved in Rajya Sabha yesterday – we created a new record. We discussed (Waqf Bill) for 17 hours and 2 minutes… The existing one was in 1961. It seems extremely difficult to break this record,” Rijiju said.

The session was marked with unusual instances of each House beginning a fresh debate after midnight. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha took up the discussion on the President rule in Manipur in the wee hours following the conclusion of marathon debates on the Waqf Bill.

The session saw the Waqf legislation uniting the INDIA parties which stood together for the first time since the 18th Lok Sabha was constituted in June last year.

The INDIA allies came together last week to take up with Speaker Birla the issue of what they called “disregard for Parliament and parliamentary procedures by government”, flagging the denial of opportunity to Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to speak in the House. The INDIA parties stuck together in the voting over the Waqf Bill, which was passed by 288-232 votes. In the Rajya Sabha, the Bill sailed through by 128- 95 votes.

The BJP also succeeded in keeping its NDA allies, including the JD-U, TDP, NCP (Ajit Pawar), JD (S) and LJP, together over the Waqf Bill on which some of them had reservations.

A major takeaway from the voting in the Rajya Sabha was the fact that two of the non-aligned parties, the YSRCP and the BRS, voted against the Bill while the BJD MPs cast votes according to their conscience.

While there was no word from the BJD, Opposition sources claimed that three of the seven BJD MPs voted against the Bill, three backed it and one member abstained. Sources claimed one of the seven YSRCP MPs broke ranks and did not vote against the Bill.

Another key takeaway was that the AIADMK members voted against the Bill despite the party warming up to the BJP for a possible alliance for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections slated for next year.

The INDIA bloc, which had a combined strength of 86 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, polled 80 votes. Six members were absent for various reasons. Two independents, Kapil Sibal and Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, also voted against the Bill.

One TMC MP Subrata Bakshi could not travel to Delhi on medical grounds. Two AAP MPs, Harbhajan Singh and Sanjeev Arora, were missing. Two of the JMM MPs, Shibu Soren and Mahua Maji, too could not attend due to health issues. Similarly, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar too was also not present on medical grounds.

The NDA has a combined strength of 118 MPs. It got 128 votes in the end. It seems the ten extra voted it got were from nominated members and the BJD.

The second leg of the Budget session saw the Opposition remaining united against the government, even though Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the LoP in the Upper House, stopped holding a meeting of floor leaders of the INDIA parties every morning as allies like the TMC skipped them.

The conflict between the government and a united Opposition grew to such an extent that at a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Rajya Sabha, their floor managers clashed, prompting Chairman Dhankhar to walk out.

On the last day of the session, the government’s move to seek a ruling from the Speaker over Sonia’s comment against the Waqf Bill upset the Congress.

In a statement, Birla said a senior member casting aspersions on the House proceedings was “most unfortunate” as well as against the dignity of parliamentary democracy. Without taking Sonia’s name, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, Birla took a stern view on her remarks after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju raised the issue and asked the Speaker to give his ruling on it. “It is not in accordance with the dignity of parliamentary democracy,” Birla said. This brought the Opposition MPs to the well of the House, raising slogans against the government’s “dictatorial” approach.

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party Thursday, Sonia had said, “Yesterday, the Wakf Amendment Bill, 2024 was passed in the Lok Sabha and today it is scheduled to come up in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill was in effect bulldozed through. Our party’s position is clear. The Bill is a brazen assault on the Constitution itself. It is very much part of the BJP’s deliberate strategy to keep our society in a state of permanent polarisation.”

Rahul Gandhi, who had made strong interventions in the first part of the session, was mostly absent during the second phase. He however slammed the Narendra Modi government in the House over the imposition of high tariffs on India by “ally” United States. He also attacked the government over the border row with China, alleging China has taken over 4,000 sq km of “our territory”.

During the session, the government completed its budgetary exercise after the Lok Sabha gave its nod to the demands for grants for various ministries as well as the Finance Bill. The Budget for Manipur was also cleared. Ten government bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha and 16 Bills were passed. The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, which seeks to regulate immigration, entry and stay of foreigners, was also cleared by Parliament during the session.