Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday asserted that the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is a brazen assault on the Constitution and is a part of the BJP’s deliberate strategy to keep society in a state of permanent polarisation.

Addressing the CPP general body meeting at the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, she said: “Yesterday, the Waqf (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.”

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Reiterating her party’s stand over the Bill, Gandhi said, “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 polarisation.”

Mentioning India’s relations with China, she said, “We have been asking for 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 (Narendra Modi) on June 19, 2020. His statement adversely impacted our negotiating position, but that too was refused.”

The CPP chairperson claimed that imports from China are booming and destroying India’s MSMEs that are the main job creators in the economy.

Attacking the ruling dispensation, she said gone are the days when the ruling party was accommodative of the Opposition, when debates and discussion used to take place in both Houses.

“We have 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 these rules and procedures are presently under challenge in the Supreme Court. Even a short-duration discussion on this subject was also not allowed,” Gandhi said.

She further claimed that the Leader of Opposition in both the Houses is not permitted to speak.

This is quite extraordinary and shocking, designed to prevent the Opposition from raising their concerns that would put the government on the spot, Gandhi alleged.

During the meeting, she also exhorted the party members for raising the “failures and misgovernance” in BJP-ruled states.