JPC tours are just 'eyewash', we're not participating, says Congress's Jawaid
Kishanganj: Congress MP and member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill Md Jawaid, raised his concerns on the process of the JPC set up to examine the bill, calling the tours across the country an "eyewash."
Speaking to ANI, Jawaid said, "We told him that the tours are just an eyewash...When we saw that our opinions were not being considered, we were left with no other option but to boycott it, so we are not participating in any tour. I think out of 31 members, 12-14 (are not participating). So, when 1/3rd of the members are not there, what is the use of it? You have to hear both types of opinions."
The JPC member said that people not having any expertise or connection to Waqf are called in to give their testimonies.
"In his tenure, PM Modi is doing everything arbitrarily. Every week, 4 days go in meetings. There are 5-6 days of tour every month. But such people are called (for meetings) who have nothing to do with Waqf. We had even written to the Chairman regarding this around 1 month back...These people want to bulldoze Waqf laws through JPC," he further said.
The Congress leader further alleged that using this law, the government will be able to acquire lakhs of acre of lands. Jawaid said that they had raised the issue to the speaker before too and were assured that the meetings would be reduced to once a week too.
"This way they would generate controversy into lakhs of acres of Muslim properties and acquire the same...We sought time from the Speaker and he graciously allotted time. He heard us and assured us that soon he would look into it and try to have one day a week meeting," he added.
"We said that there is no need for such haste as this is a very serious matter pertaining to around 20 crore people," he said.
Earlier on Saturday, DMK Lok Sabha MP, A Raja raised concerns over the ongoing deliberations, accusing the committee's chairman of bias and improper conduct.
Speaking to ANI, Raja stated that the rights of minorities were being "threatened" by the way the JPC proceedings were being handled, adding that the opposition members had raised multiple objections to the chairman's handling of the committee meetings.
