New Delhi: At the joint parliamentary committee hearing on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday, a number of opposition MPs staged a walkout, sparking further controversy over the purported "violation of parliamentary code of conduct."
The opposition MPs wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing the BJP members of subjecting them to derogatory remarks, regarding the “gross violation of parliamentary code of conduct” during the meeting presided over by Jagdambika Pal, the chairman of the JPC.
The MPs who boycotted the meeting included A Raja of the DMK, Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of AIMIM, Kalyan Banerjee of the TMC, Gaurav Gogoi and Imran Masood of the Congress, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT), and Sanjay Singh of the AAP, the New Indian Express reported.
As the panel was hearing a presentation on the Waqf Bill from members of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, chaos broke out. Nishikant Dubey and Abhijit Ganguly, two BJP MPs, allegedly got into a heated argument with Banerjee and Gogoi on the idea to allow women on Waqf boards.
But after over an hour, the Opposition members returned to the meeting.
After the walk out Sawant informed reporters that the panel was not operating in accordance with accepted parliamentary procedures.
Additionally, he asserted that at the meeting, personal accusations had been permitted, specifically addressed at prominent figures such as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. “We have boycotted because the committee is not functioning with the principles and norms of the committee. Ethically and principally, they are wrong,” he said. The opposition criticised the committee for permitting such accusations as well.
The MPs claimed in their letter to the Speaker that Chairperson Jagdambika Pal repeatedly violated the norms of procedure and the parliamentary code of conduct during the October 14 meeting.