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The Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala P Sandosh Kumar, wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, Speaker of Lok Sabha Om Birla and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiran Rijiju regarding the impropriety of procedure in presenting the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024.
In the letter, he questioned the manner in which the parliamentary procedures were derailed and undermined by the government arbitrarily. CPI MP from Kerala in a letter claims that when the report of the JPC on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, was presented to the Speaker, Lok Sabha, on January 30, 2025, dissent notes of some members of the JPC were missing from it. This has led to uproar from the opposition. Although a Corrigendum to Annexure IV of the Report was tabled later, the Report presented in Lok Sabha does not indicate any such Corrigendum to the original report. "Hence, it is crystal clear that dissent notes were modified as an afterthought; it is neither reflected in the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha nor in the report uploaded on the Digital Sansad website on 13/02/2025," he added. P Sandosh Kumar further added in his letter that the publication of the report without properly reflecting the later modification is tantamount to misrepresentation of facts and misleading of Parliament and the general public. "The remarks of the Home Minister in Lok Sabha that the ruling party has no objection to the inclusion of dissent notes in the report smacks of the pure authoritarian approach of this Government. Moreover, why does a JPC, which has an independent existence from the Executive and is supposed to oversee their functions, require the ruling party's opinion or acceptance to publish its report in whatever form it desires? This shows clearly that parliament's authority is being undermined by the executive and the ruling party and their undue interference therein," he added. CPI MP from Kerala further said in a letter that the ministers of the Union Cabinet do not have any locus standi as far as the report of JPC is concerned. JPC was constituted by Parliament to examine, study and report on the Bill and only the presiding officers have powers over the Committee. All other members, including ministers, are equally placed in this regard and the admission by the ministers themselves that they were aware of the proceedings of JPC much more than others, that too on the floor of the house, can be safely presumed to be a clear indication of the indirect influence wielded by the executive on parliament and its functioning. (ANI)
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