In fact, a Parliamentary Committee for consideration of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, having 31 members, 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha, has been set up, likely to report by the next session of the Parliament.
Both Houses of Parliament on Friday passed a motion moved by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who also holds charge of parliamentary affairs, to constitute the members of the committee.
In the Lok Sabha, the committee is made up of 12 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, with eight belonging to the BJP, and nine from the opposition. In the Rajya Sabha, it has four members from the BJP, four from the opposition, and one nominated member.
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Some of the Lok Sabha MPs inducted into this committee include Jagdambika Pal, Nishikant Dubey, Tejasvi Surya, Aparajita Sarangi, Sanjay Jaiswal, Dilip Saikia, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, DK Aruna, Gaurav Gogoi, Imran Masood, Mohammad Jawed, Kalyan Banerjee, A Raja, Lavu Sri Krishnadevaraya, Dileshwar Kam.
From Rajya Sabha, the members are Brij Lal, Medha Vishram Kulkarni, Gulam Ali, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal (all BJP); Syed Naseer Hussain (Congress); Mohammed Nadimul Haque (Trinamool Congress); V Vijayasai Reddy (YSRCP); M Mohamed Abdulla (DMK); Sanjay Singh (AAP);.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is soon going to appoint the chairman of the committee. Sources said that though BJP’s Jagdambika Pal might be selected for this position, a final call will be taken soon.
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The Waqf(Amendment) Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and referred to the joint committee following a scorching debate. The government, on its part, made a categorical statement that the modifications are not aimed at involving itself in the affairs of mosques, while at the same time it has been criticized by the Opposition for being an attack on the Muslim populace and the Constitution.
The Minister assured Rijiju that the committee would table its report before the Lok Sabha by the end of the first week of the next session. Separately, a delegation of Muslim clerics met Rijiju and extended support to the proposed amendments in the Waqf Act, 1995, contrary to sharp criticism by opposition over the issue.
