Oppn MPs boycott presentation on Waqf Amendment Bill, say it is used to malign Cong Chief & K'taka govt

New Delhi, Oct 15
The Opposition MPs boycotted the presentation on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, based on the Karnataka Wakf Scam Report of 2012 on Monday here.

The presentation was made at the Joint Parliamentary meeting by the former Chairman of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission and former Karnataka BJP Vice-President, Anwar Mannipaddy.

The Opposition claimed that the report was used to malign the Congress-led Karnataka government and party President Mallikarjun Kharge.

They sought time from the Speaker to discuss the issue and also wrote to remove the Committee Chairman Jagdambika Pal.

The 11-page report named Kharge as one among the alleged culprits, to have been involved in Wakf land scams.

The report also named former Congress Ministers, including former Union Railway Minister late C.K. Jaffer Shariff, Rehman Khan, Roshan Baig and present Congress MLA Tanveer Sait and others, to be involved in illegal activities in misusing the Wakf property.

The report said that the Wakf board scam is the biggest in the country, and should be investigated by the CBI.

It demanded that the board should be kept suspended for at least 12 months or until the investigations reach their logical end.

The report further emphasised that in spite of the hue and cry over the Wakf Board scam for the past 11 years, the Wakf Board crimes are still taking place unabated.

Despite submitting detailed reports on Wakf Board scams, these reports have not been properly tabled in the Houses.

These scams represent some of the most egregious instances of financial mismanagement and corruption in the Wakf boards of India, Anwar Mannipaddy said.

Proper and secure amendments are necessary to ensure justice and foster accountability within the management of public assets, he added.

"I would urge the Muslim community not to oppose the proposed amendments. It is crucial to give the Central government a chance to implement these reforms, which are designed to prevent fraud and embezzlement and ensure Wakf assets are used to genuinely benefit the community," he said.

This is essential to build trust and confidence between the majority and minority communities thereby fostering development, he urged.

Shiv Sena-UBT MP Arvind Sawant, Congress's Gaurav Gogoi and Imran Masood, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, Samajwadi Party's Mohibbullah, DMK's A. Raja and Aam Aadmi Party's Sanjay Singh, staged a walkout of the meeting.