Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], April 1 : Congress leader Harish Rawat on Tuesday took a jibe at the Central Government over the Waqf Amendment Bill and said that it was the government's rigidity which would harm the harmony of the country.
He further stated that if the minorities were pushed further backwards, they would become lonely which would increase extremism and other issues in the country.
Speaking to ANI, Rawat said "This is nothing but their (Central Government) rigidity, and the harmony of this country will suffer the consequences of this rigidity."
"If minorities are pushed further backwards, they will become lonely, which will increase extremism and other issues..." he further stated.
The Congress leader further said that if there was no harmony in the state, the country's development would be adversely affected and the country would move a little further back from their goal of making India great.
"When there is no harmony, India's development will also be adversely affected. We will move a little further back from our goal of making India great," he said.
Meanwhile, Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) member and Congress MP Dr Syed Naseer Hussain strongly criticised the government over the Waqf Amendment Bill, alleging that the government is being pushed through without discussion or debate.
"The way the debate was supposed to be held in JPC, it was not held, nor was there a clause-to-clause discussion. The way this bill is being brought in a hurry shows that the government does not want to work on it seriously," Hussain told ANI.
He further added," The government does not want reforms to take place in Waqf institutions. The government is spreading wrong information about this bill all over the country..."
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said, "We (Congress) have a very clear stand on Waqf. When the JPC was formed, we had presented all our objections but they were not accepted there. When this (Waqf Amendment Bill) comes to the House, we will oppose it in the same way as we did in the JPC."