We will fight till the end: Congress MP Masood on Waqf Bill

New Delhi [India], February 3 (ANI): Congress MP Imran Masood on Monday strongly criticised the Joint Parliamentary Committee's (JPC) report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024, stating that the government cannot push through decisions solely based on majority power.
Speaking to ANI, Masood emphasised that in a democracy, every opinion matters and vowed to continue the fight.
"You can't bulldoze everything based on the strength of numbers. This is a democracy and everyone's views are taken into account. We will fight till the end on this. It is an open violation of Article 26 of the Constitution," the Congress MP said.
Earlier on Monday, the Chairman of the JPC, Jagdambika Pal, said that the Opposition is trying to push a certain agenda and has submitted a dissent note on 281 pages out of a total of 428 pages report.
Speaking to the media, Pal emphasised that they have prepared the final report after considering all the witnesses.
"Just like they (Opposition) tried to mislead the JPC by saying that if this bill is passed, all Waqf properties will be taken away, similarly, they are trying to push a certain agenda across the country and are attempting appeasement. In the continuous JPC meetings, we called everyone as witnesses, whether it was the Waqf Board, the Minority Commission, government officials, stakeholders, or Islamic scholars - we listened to all of them. We have prepared a 428-page report, which we have submitted to the Speaker," he said.
"In this 428-page report, we had requested clause-by-clause amendments, whether it was Owaisi Sahib, Naseer Hussain, or anyone else, and everyone had given their input. We then held a voting based on those amendments and accepted them based on the majority," he added.
The JPC report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 will not be tabled in the House on Monday, according to the list of businesses. The report was presented to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on January 30, 2025. (ANI)