New Delhi, Feb 13 (UNI) Parliamentary and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday slammed the Opposition for calling the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the Waqf Amendment Bill as “illegal and unconstitutional” and said that the committee did its work as per the rule.
Addressing the media at the Parliament House here, Rijiju while praising the JPC for “doing a great work” in the last six months, said that those “speaking against this report are dismissing their own report”.
He said, “Calling the JPC report as illegal and unconstitutional is not correct. The JPC was formed by all the parties and it is not of one party. This is not just an NDA report. This is Parliament’s Joint Parliamentary Committee”.
“This report has an importance. If you (Opposition) are speaking against this report then you are dismissing your own report. As far as the report is concerned there can be differences in the opinion within the JPC,” the Minister said.
On the allegation of the Opposition that the dissent note was removed, Rijiju said that the Chairman has the authority to remove a note “that casts aspersion on the Committee”. The Chairman has the power to delete a portion. It is also mentioned in the rule. And everything happened as per rule.
He said, “Every view whether those considered by the majority or rejected by the majority have been considered in the JPC report which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha today”.
It may be mentioned that the Upper House witnessed chaotic scenes leading to a brief adjournment of the house as Opposition members protested over the ‘deletion’ of dissent notes from the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the Waqf Amendment Bill.
