Chicago – October 28, 2024
Members of the opposition in a Parliamentary committee walked out of a meeting on Monday, expressing their displeasure over who was invited to discuss the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.
Key opposition figures, including Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM, Mohammad Jawed of Congress, and Mohibbullah Nadvi of the Samajwadi Party, temporarily left the meeting. They were unhappy because individuals they believed were not directly affected by the bill were asked to provide oral evidence.
The incident happened during a session where various Waqf Boards from Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttarakhand were scheduled to speak. In the afternoon, the panel planned to hear from a group of retired high court and Supreme Court lawyers, as well as the Waqf Tenant Welfare Association.
The walkout was triggered after the Delhi Waqf Board administrator presented a report, which the opposition claimed had not been approved by the Delhi government.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi’s office sent a letter to the committee’s chair, Jagdambika Pal, arguing that the report should be ignored because it lacked governmental approval.
This is not the first walkout; similar incidents have occurred in recent weeks, including one on October 14 involving comments about Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge related to Waqf land allocation.
