Chaos at Waqf panel meet, Trinamool MP smashes bottle in anger, injures hand

Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee injured his hand after smashing a glass water bottle as the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the Waqf Bill turned ugly on Tuesday.

Sources said the incident happened during a heated argument between BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee. JPC Chairman Jagdambika Pal has suspended Banerjee from the next meeting of the Waqf Bill panel, sources told India Today TV. The decision was taken through voting and there were nine votes in favour of and seven against the Trinamool MP’s suspension, sources said.

According to sources, the Trinamool MP picked up a glass water bottle and hit it on the table and hurt himself by accident. Banerjee had to get four stitches. He was later seen being escorted back to the meeting room by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and AAP leader Sanjay Singh.

The meeting, which took place at the Parliament Annexe, had to be halted briefly due to the incident. The committee, chaired by BJP’s Jagdambika Pal, was hearing the views of a group of retired judges and lawyers when the Opposition members questioned their stake in the matter.

Sources said Kalyan Banerjee started speaking out of turn as he wanted to raise a point. However, the BJP’s Abhijit Gangopadhyay objected to it. Sources said Banerjee then used unparliamentary language against him, leading to a verbal spat.

The panel meetings have been marred by spats and heated arguments between BJP MPs and opposition members. Last week too, Kalyan Banerjee was involved in a heated exchange with BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey, Dilip Saikia, Abhijit Gangopadhyay. The Opposition accused the BJP MPs of using offensive language and walked out of the meeting.

The Opposition has alleged that Jagdambika Pal was not functioning in accordance with rules and failed to take action against the BJP MPs. On the other hand, BJP leader Tejasvi Surya has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging some Opposition members threatened the JPC chairperson and also tore up some documents.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill was tabled in Parliament by the Centre on July 28. However, amid strong objections from opposition parties, the bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on August 8. The proposed bill aims to restrict the authority of Waqf boards to designate any property or area as “waqf property”.