FRAGRANCE OF IDEAS
While the legislative debate on Waqf Bill in the parliament is over, the focus now shifts to the kind of political, legal and executive developments in regard to the implications of the Bill outside the parliament. The long discussion on the Bill consumed a full two days (24×7) in both the houses of parliament. It was indeed a broad based discussion held after a marathon exercise of deliberations at the level of the Joint Parliamentary Committee constituted for the purpose.
Virtually everyone in the two houses spoke on the Bill and put his/her party’s stand and also his or her personal stand on the subject while making presentations. And lastly, the voting in both the houses decided the issue in favour of the Bill and the connected legislation brought before the parliament by the Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju. This is surely a big victory for the government.
Immediately after passing of the legislation by the two houses, the President Droupadi Murmu accorded her sanction to it in order to make it a law. The Bill seeks to rename the 1995 Act to the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development Act to reflect its broader objective of improving the management and efficiency of Waqf Boards & properties attached thereto and incidental thereto.
This time the participating members contributed to the whole debate without any kind of major disruptions etc. Everyone tried to add value to the debate regardless of the results. However, the opposition was seen mentally and intellectually helter-skelter during the whole debate in both the houses. It exposed their utter disappointment with the situation.
The opposition tried every effort in their stock to create differences within the ruling NDA on the issue in the same way in which it tried to do it after the election results emerged on 4th June 2024. They tried to bring in the factor of the so-called secular vote bank in regard to the stand taken particularly by the Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party. They even instigated their own members in this regard within and outside the parliament but in vain.
NDA-BJP and in particular the PM Narendra Modi exhibited complete confidence of a different nature this time. Modi left it completely to the floor managers in both the houses of the parliament to ensure that the Waqf Bill was navigated successfully which they did. The command with which the whole debate was organised by the ruling alliance and particularly the introduction and interventions of Amit Shah and Kiren Rijiju speak volumes about the preparedness by the government in this context. Then the speeches made by Ravi Shanker Prasad, Lallan Singh, Sambit Patra in the lower house and J.P.Nadda, Radha Mohan Aggarwal and former PM Deve Gowda in the upper house brought a lot of enlightenment to the minds of the masses watching the debate live on various channels.
Indi-Alliance and particularly the Congress were observed to be short of logic and substance in their arguments. Their opposition to the Waqf Bill was by and large based upon two things, one -hatred for BJP-Modi and second -the so-called love for Muslim vote bank. None of them in their speeches could place on record the tangible reasons for their opposition to the Bill.
In this connection, the presentations made by Gourav Gogoi, Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kalyan Bannerjee and Harsimrat Kaur were bereft of any homework and finesse. They were simply casual in their content and lukewarm on issues concerning the introduction of the Bill. Moreover, they seemed completely lacking in their self-confidence while they were making their presentations on important constitutional issues. They couldn’t at any point of their argumentation prove that the Bill was unconstitutional which they claimed umpteen times during the course of the debate.
The leaders of opposition in both the houses of parliament, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi were seen living in their own world during the serious debate on the subject. While Rahul Gandhi was absent from the Lower House and didn’t participate in the discussion, Kharge’s speech was uninspiring and without any convincing content. His body language also presented his low confidence and disappointment. Rahul while attending the parliament after midnight for voting purposes was seen in slippers and casual-pyjama with his trademark T-Shirt which gave a complete picture of his mindset in regard to his responsibilities and duties as a person in a constitutional position.
In fact, they (both Rahul Gandhi & Kharge) brought the stature of the Leader of Opposition in their respective houses to an all time low by their statements, work and conduct during the most-watched debate. Unfortunately for their party -the Congress, it doesn’t matter at all…! The oldest political party, which is now in the opposition at the Centre continuously for the third term, has taken itself completely away from any sort of moral and constitutional responsibility to be an essential contributory party to run the parliament and the democracy in the country. The party deems that such a responsibility was the sole prerogative of the government and the ruling party.
However, it has given to itself the responsibility to oppose the government on every pretext both inside and outside the parliament and has gone to the extent to fight the nation-state as well as per their leader, Rahul Gandhi. It is generally observed that such a peculiar situation has taken place in the country for the first time during the last almost eight decades of our political history. It should also be for the first time that the Chair in both the houses would ask the leader of opposition to behave in a dignified manner in the house. This is indeed a very sad situation for the opposition in the country. It is important here to also analyse the approach of the other important leaders of the opposition as well in the light of the debate on the Waqf Bill.
Technically speaking, Owaisi the AIMIM leader, was better oriented than the other opposition speakers in the lower house. His conduct however was shabby and he exhibited it when he symbolically tore apart a copy of the Bill. Then he also chose to leave the house unceremoniously once he finished his speech. The most disgusting speech was delivered by Akhilesh Yadav and he was reminded by the Speaker to speak on the subject. He made his riff raff speech without any reference to the content of the Bill and instead dealt with all subjects of his choice but the Bill. His speech indeed exposed his fear and worries about his future and the future of his party in UP.
Surprisingly, the Congress’s first family leader, Priyanka Vadra, who claims to look like her ‘grandmother’, absented herself during the all important debate in the Lok Sabha. Neither was she seen with her ‘bags’ in any corner of the parliament complex raising issues pertaining to Palestine, Gaza, minorities in India and Bangladesh etc. Veteran Digvijay Singh and mercurial Sanjay Raut continued with their usual ‘tamasha’ in the Rajya Sabha but got befitting replies from Amit Shah and Praful Patel respectively. DMK speakers were simply unimpressive and vague.
The prominent Muslim MPs raised issues of their concern but a couple of them said that the minority community won’t accept the law even if it was passed by the two houses. The Home Minister, Amit Shah quickly responded to their ‘threats’ and declared that neither the house nor the government would be scared of such fake claims made by the members of the house. He further declared that everyone in the country was supposed to abide by the law of the land in all cases.
The turning point came when the BJD and YSRCP members in parliament were freed by their respective parties from any kind of whip of the party in regard to the Waqf Bill. They were permitted to vote as per their conscience. This was a major blow to the strength and spirit of the opposition. At no point of time, the opposition looked comfortable during the course of the debate. False threats, fake claims and phoney narratives overwhelmed the speeches and the body language of the opposition leaders in the parliament consistently.
When the debate on the important subject was going on in the parliament, the PM Narendra Modi, as per his schedule, left for Thailand for the BIMSTEC Summit followed by his visit to Sri Lanka and Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. He didn’t participate in the debate on the Bill and neither did he vote on it in the lower house. All these developments show his and his government’s amount of confidence in their planning and its execution. This confidence was completely lacking in the opposition both inside and outside the parliament.
Now the opposition in a few states where they are in power are creating ruckus in the respective Assemblies to make their difference of opinion to the Bill known to the people. A number of them have gone to the Supreme Court of India challenging the constitutional validity of the Bill. Some have chosen to go to the people to raise their voice against the Waqf Bill. But the question remains; and it is the credibility of the opposition which it has lost in the eyes of the people in general. Their course correction seems almost impossible seeing their statements, work and overtures. Only some miracle can uplift the opposition in future course of time..!
(The author is a senior BJP and KP leader, Human Rights Defender, author & columnist and can be reached at: [email protected])
