A war of words erupted in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the Waqf Amendment Bill after Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its delay in electing a new president.
“A party that claims to be the biggest political party in the world has still not been able to elect its own national president,” Yadav said in the Lok Sabha.
In response, Union home minister Amit Shah took a ‘dynastic politics’ jibe at the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
“Akhilesh Ji made his remark with a smile, so I will respond in the same manner. The parties sitting across from us in this House all have national presidents who are selected from just five family members. But in our party, we have to conduct a process involving 12-13 crore members, so naturally, it takes time. In your party, there is no delay at all,” said Shah.
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JP Nadda was appointed as the BJP’s acting national president on June 17, 2019, after the Lok Sabha elections were held that year. He remained in this role until January 20, 2020.
On January 20, 2020, Nadda was formally elected as the 11th national president of the party and has held this position since then.
Speaking in the parliament today, Yadav reaffirmed his party’s stance on the Waqf Amendment Bill, stating that they will oppose it. The SP chief said that the BJP seeks to maintain administrative control and is introducing such amendments for this purpose.
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Yadav said, “The Waqf Amendment Bill is being brought to take control of everything. The country has witnessed how administrative mistakes have created rifts between Hindus and Muslims. One wrong administrative decision has caused such a rift which is visible even today. The BJP will take control of Waqf, and then they will get all the decisions made in their favour.
“The BJP scrapped reservation for Anglo-Indians; implemented GST, claiming it would benefit businesses, but now businessmen are unhappy with GST. They introduced demonetization, yet black money is still being recovered. All the decisions of the BJP were wrong, and those decisions are politically motivated, aiming solely to gain votes,” he added.