Saturday, 26 April 2025
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Sonia Gandhi's "brazen assault on the Constitution" remark on the Waqf Amendment Bill has naturally found no admirers in the BJP camp.
The comment has now provoked a demand for apology after drawing considerable public rebuke from the Lok Sabha Speaker.
In the BJP’s view, Gandhi hasn't just criticised a Bill — she has crossed a line.
At a Congress Parliamentary Party meeting on April 3, also Gandhi claimed it was “bulldozed through” the Lok Sabha.
“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. 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 on Thursday.
'Misleading and disrespectful'
Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju defended the legislative process and called Gandhi’s statement misleading and disrespectful.
“Sonia Gandhi is a senior leader; I don't want to comment on her. Yesterday, during the parliamentary party meeting of Congress, a statement was released that the Bill (the Waqf Amendment Act) was passed forcefully and bulldozing (the procedures). I just clarified and told the amount of effort that has been put into that. We created a record of the discussion. There has never been this much discussion in the parliamentary history. We followed all processes and the House functioned till 4am and then you say the bill was 'bulldozed' on us? We saw history being made but rather than appreciating that, you are saying we are 'bulldozing' the bill through. This is not right.”
The government highlighted that the Bill was debated for nearly 14 hours in the Lok Sabha and for 17 hours in the Rajya Sabha, where it eventually passed with 128 votes in favour and 95 against.
Dubey says 'maafi maango'
The fury just doesn't stop with Rijiju.
On Friday morning, Lok Sabha proceedings were drowned out by BJP MPs shouting “Sonia Gandhi maafi maango” (Sonia Gandhi, apologise).
The party accused her of maligning the integrity of Parliament and misleading the country.
Nishikant Dubey led the charge, alleging that Gandhi’s words amounted to saying the BJP was “taking the country down the drain.”
Speaker jumps in, too
Without naming her, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla took a veiled dig at Gandhi, saying “It is highly unfortunate that despite the House sitting till late night and passing the bill after a long debate, a senior member is casting aspersions on the House proceedings which is not appropriate. It is not in accordance with the dignity of parliamentary democracy.”
