NEW DELHI: The meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Amendment Bill witnessed unruly scenes on Friday after 10 Opposition MPs were suspended for a day amid accusations against chairman Jagdambika Pal of being partisan during the meeting.
Later, the suspended MPs shot off a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleging that Pal suspended them after he received a phone call during the meeting. The MPs said that the JPC chief does not have the power to suspend the members and urged Birla to instruct him to conduct the proceedings in a fair manner.
The Opposition members alleged that the proceedings had been reduced to a farce, but the chairman slammed their conduct aimed at disrupting the meeting. Pal accused TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee of abusing him and said that he tried to bring the meeting to order, adjourning it twice, but in vain.
BJP member Aparajita Sarangi alleged that the conduct of the Opposition members was “disgusting” as they were continuously creating ruckus during the proceedings.
The suspended MPs include TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, Nasir Hussain and Md Jawed of Congress, DMK’s A Raja and M Abdullah and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi among others.
The sequence of events began after the Opposition MPs raised questions over the “sudden change” in the agenda.
At a press conference in the evening, the suspended MPs alleged that the government is acting in a hasty manner keeping the Delhi polls in mind.