'Biggest loser will be Shiv Sena (UBT)': Nishikant Dubey's big claim on Uddhav Thackeray ahead of final Waqf JPC meeting

Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP from Jharkhand's Godda and a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, on Wednesday made a big claim on Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray ahead of the final meeting of the panel today. 

Dubey said in a recent interview that the biggest loser after the whole JPC exercise will be the Uddhav-led faction of the Shiv Sena. He claimed that the regional party worked against the interests of the nation on the Bill. 

"The biggest loser after this whole issue will be the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray. They worked against the country’s interests on this Bill while they have done the politics of Hindutva in the past," the BJP MP told The Indian Express in an interaction. 

He also claimed that in the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, this issue would not be one of the poll planks for the Congress and the NCP(SP). 

"In the BMC elections, the Congress won’t contest with it, the same for the NCP (SP), and they will contest alone. The party won’t have the trust of Muslims, Hindus, Marathis, non-Marathis. Its existence will be over after this issue."

He also cleared the air around the amendments regarding the Bill proposed by the Opposition getting rejected. Dubey claimed that the INDIA bloc parties did not discuss the amendments and instead wanted to abolish the Bill itself and fights in the panel, including an incident involving TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee. 

During one of the meetings of the panel last year, Banerjee had smashed a glass bottle on the table during a heated debate. Due to the incident, MPs were suspended from a parliamentary committee for the first time ever since the Constitution came into being. 

He also accused the Opposition parties of harassing Muslims and indulging in appeasement politics. "If they are so concerned about Muslims, why didn’t Saharanpur MP Imran Masood come on Monday for the meeting? The same for NCP (SP) member Suresh Mhatre. AAP member Sanjay Singh who shouts outside for Muslim votes didn’t come."

After the JPC meet on Tuesday, some of the key provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 are two Muslim women will continue to be included as members in both the State Waqf Boards (Section 14) and the Central Waqf Council (Section 9) to ensure Muslim women’s empowerment and participation in waqf management; and the State Waqf Boards will now include one member from the Muslim OBC community, ensuring broader representation (Section 14).