Oppn members will boycott forthcoming Waqf JPC tour: Trinamool

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha Kalyan Banerjee said on Thursday that the Lok Sabha members from the opposition parties in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Amendment Bill will boycott the forthcoming tour by the committee members to different cities of the country. 

He said that the opposition members will also be boycotting the future meetings of the committee. He cited the high-handed attitude of the chairman of the said committee Jagadambika Pal as the reason behind the decision of the opposition members.

Addressing media persons, accompanied by the Trinamool Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Nadimul Haque, Banerjee said that the chairman of the said committee has deliberately charted out a hectic schedule of tours to five cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Patna and Lucknow.

“There are elections at Jharkhand and Maharashtra. There are bypolls for six Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. In the midst of such events making the tour is impossible,” Banerjee said.

He also claimed that the opposition members in the JPC on Waqf are unable to attend any other programme because of the prolonged meetings of the said committee on a daily basis.

“On average, the meetings are conducted for nine hours daily. The members of the committee are unable to attend other events. Even they are unable to attend meetings of the other Parliamentary Standing Committees. In addition to that the tour schedule has been fixed. Hence the opposition members in the committee have decided to boycott the tour,” Banerjee said.

He said that besides Trinamool Congress, the members from other opposition parties like Congress, DMK, and JMM among others have also decided to boycott the tour.

He also said that those who had been made witnesses regarding the Waqf Amendment Bill have no practical knowledge about this subject and the opinion in the matter is being created artificially.