New Delhi: History will record that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was abroad when voting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill took place, did not support, oppose or abstain from voting on the legislation which was passed in the recently concluded Budget Session, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien said on Monday.
“Prime Minister Modi was abroad when voting on the Waqf Bill took place. History will record that he did not support the Bill. Or oppose it. Or abstain,” O’Brien said in a blog published on Monday.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill was passed by Parliament in the early hours of April 4 after a marathon debate in Rajya Sabha, with 128 members voting in favour and 95 against.
The Prime Minister was in Thailand to attend the 6th BIMSTEC summit that day.
In a blog titled ‘Parliament Session Recap: Don’t Let The All-Nighters Deceive You’, O’Brien said the overnight sittings of Parliament in the recently concluded session may look like the institution is in “top form” but it has actually turned into a “deep dark chamber”.
The Trinamool Congress Parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha said that Home Minister Amit Shah was the government’s “headliner” this session.
“He piloted three bills from his ministry and also spoke for 45 minutes on Waqf, which he did not pilot. Amit Shah was BJP’s batsman, bowler and fielder. For a change, he was also seen more than once in the cafeteria, interacting with MPs across parties,” O’Brien said.
“Interesting times. As a colleague observed, is it the 240 effect? Or could it be a 52-year-old bachelor captaining a very large state?” he said, without naming any leader.
Referring to the recently concluded session, he said, “For two days during this recently concluded Budget session, MPs were in Parliament from 11 am to 4 am the next morning. Seventeen hours on the trot. Surely, parliamentary democracy is all energised and in top form. Right? No. Completely wrong,” O’Brien said.
“Don’t let the contrived all-night-long sessions deceive you… Parliament is being turned into a deep, dark chamber,” he said.
The senior TMC leader questioned why the government waited till the “fag end of the session” to take up discussion on Manipur, when The Statutory Resolution to the Proclamation of President’s Rule in Manipur was notified on February 13, 2025.
“Why was the government avoiding the subject for almost three weeks? Worse still, why in the dead of night? Just 44 minutes in the Lok Sabha,” he said.
“What happened in the Rajya Sabha was even more jarring. Three hours had been allotted for the discussion. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used just two minutes of the 75 minutes they were allotted. In fact, when the opening speaker from the BJP was just two minutes into his speech, floor leaders from his party shut him down. Indifference infinity,” he said.
He also said that the Opposition votes against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha could have been more if not for medical emergencies faced by some members.
He said Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Shibu Soren and Mahua Majhi were advised by doctors not to travel. Sharad Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Subrata Bakshi from the All India Trinamool Congress were also absent for the same reason.
“We wish them all a speedy and full recovery. Also, one vote from the Opposition was declared invalid due to a technicality.” O’Brien also said that the last time a notice from an Opposition MP was admitted in the Rajya Sabha was 16 months ago, in December 2023, when he raised the discussion on ‘The Economic Situation In The Country’, and last Calling Attention was accepted in July 2024, on the floods in Kerala.
With no Deputy Speaker being appointed in the Lok Sabha so far, he said, “It has now been almost 300 days since the current Lok Sabha commenced. Article 93 of the Constitution mandates the election of a Deputy Speaker ‘as soon as may be’. Yet, a constitutional post continues to remain vacant”.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
