AMN / Bhubaneswar
BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Thursday said his party would “strongly oppose” the Waqf (Amendment) Bill if it is tabled in Parliament.
Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is currently being looked into by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Addressing the BJD’s Minority Cell, former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that members of minority communities were meeting him and expressing concerns about their insecurities with regard to this legislation. “The party will oppose Waqf Bill,” he said.
The BJD has eight members in the Rajya Sabha which can make things difficult for the BJP-led NDA which lacks a majority on its own in the Upper House. The Bill, which is facing resistance from the opposition, is presently being looked into by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to which it was referred following objections from several quarters.
This is the first time in several years that the BJD has decided to oppose an important Bill tabled by the NDA government in the Parliament. In the past, the regional party, which lost the last assembly elections paving the way for the formation of a BJP government in Odisha for the first time, has been supporting the NDA government almost consistently.
The last time BJD had objected to a Bill brought in by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government was in 2015 when it had expressed reservations against the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill insisting on the insertion of some major changes into the legislation.
The BJD otherwise has been supporting the BJP-led NDA faithfully inside the parliament despite following an avowed policy of staying equidistant from BJP as well as the Congress. Though BJD and BJP ruled Odisha as coalition partners from 2000 to 2009, they parted ways ahead of the assembly elections held that year.
Ever since, they have fought elections as rivals but BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik developed friendly relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he came to power in Delhi at the head of an NDA government. While the BJD lent support to several controversial legislations brought by the Modi-led NDA government in the Parliament including scrapping of article 370, Triple Talaq and Citizenship Amendment bills, the Prime Minister came to the rescue of Odisha whenever it faced a natural disaster.