Congress leader Sonia Gandhi calls Waqf Bill 'brazen assault' on Constitution, accuses BJP of...

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday termed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill as a "brazen assault" on the Constitution, saying it was part of the BJP's strategy to keep society in a state of "permanent polarisation". Hours after the Lok Sabha passed the Waqf amendment bill, Gandhi said the bill was "bulldozed" through in the lower house.

Addressing party MPs at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in Samvidhan Sadan here, she also said that the One Nation, One Election Bill is another subversion of the Constitution, and the party would strongly oppose it.

"Yesterday, the Wakf Amendment Bill, 2024 was passed in the Lok Sabha and today it is scheduled to come up in the Rajya Sabha. The bill was in effect bulldozed through. Our party's position is clear. The Bill is a brazen assault on the Constitution itself. It is very much part of the BJP's deliberate strategy to keep our society in a state of permanent polarization," Gandhi said.

The Lok Sabha passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill well past midnight after a 12-hour debate. The Bill was passed after all amendments moved by the opposition members were rejected by voice votes. It was passed after a division of votes -- 288 in favour and 232 against. The Bill will now come up in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The former Congress president also said their plea for the immediate implementation of the women's reservation bill passed by both Houses two years back continues to be wilfully ignored along with the other demand for one-third reservation for women belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and OBC communities.

"Whether it is education, civil rights and liberties, our federal structure or conduct of elections, the Modi government is dragging the country into an abyss where our Constitution will remain on paper and we know their intention is to demolish even that," she charged.

"It is vital for all of us to continue to fight for what is right and just, to expose Modi government's failing and intention to turn India into a surveillance state," Gandhi told MPs at the meeting.

All party MPs, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, were present at the meeting.

Gandhi also said they have repeatedly been raising the issue of free and fair elections and the need for Parliament to debate the functioning of the Election Commission and its "opaque" rules and procedures, some of which are presently under challenge in the Supreme Court.

Targeting the prime minister, she accused him of rebranding, repackaging, and marketing numerous initiatives taken from 2004 to 2014 as his own personal accomplishments. That too needs to be exposed through our own public outreach activities, she asserted.

Speaking on the functioning of both houses of Parliament, she charged that the Leaders of Opposition are not allowed to speak and the treasury benches are often found to be creating disturbance in a bid to not allow the Congress to raise their issues.

"It is a matter of grave concern to our democracy that the LoP in the Lok Sabha is not permitted to speak. Similarly, time and again, the LoP in the Rajya Sabha, Khargeji is also not allowed to say what he wants to say and indeed must say.

"Like you, I have been witness to how the House gets adjourned not because of us but because of the protests by the treasury benches themselves. This is quite extraordinary and shocking designed to prevent the Opposition from raising their concerns that would put the government on the spot," she noted.

Noting that the BJP members aggressively target Congress-ruled state governments, with "total falsehoods", she urged party MPs to be equally aggressive and raise the failures and mis-governance in BJP-ruled states. This will mean much more pointed homework and research on our part, she noted.

The CPP chairperson said Congress MPs have effectively highlighted the real state of the economy and have exposed the vast gap between what the government claims and what the overwhelming reality is in relation to price rise, unemployment, and growing inequalities.

She also lauded the role played by Congress leaders who are chairpersons of Parliamentary committees for providing forceful leadership. "You have used these reports to build a larger consensus to hold the government to account. This is especially so in agriculture, rural development, and education," she said.

Gandhi, however, said their demands for a debate on a number of issues of public importance have been denied by the ruling party. "Gone are the days when the ruling party was accommodating of the Opposition when debates and discussions used to take place in both Houses and as MPs we looked forward to them," she noted.

She said they wanted a detailed discussion in the Lok Sabha on the working of the ministries of defence and external affairs, as both these subjects are of critical importance given the increasingly turbulent political atmosphere in our neighbourhood, but this was disallowed.

The former Congress president said the party has been seeking a discussion in both Houses on the grave challenges posed by China on our borders and the "shocking clean chit" given to it by the prime minister on June 19, 2020.

The Congress leader urged MPs to reinforce outside Parliament the issues of dilution of RTI, MGNREGA, Forest Rights Act, and the Land Acquisition Act.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)

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