Many opposition leaders walked out of the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill on Monday, to register their protest against the presentation made by the Delhi Waqf Board.

The leaders who staged the walkout claimed that the administrator of the Delhi Waqf Board, who had appeared before the panel, made changes to the presentation without the knowledge of the Delhi government.

Among the opposition members who walked out of the meeting were AAP MP Sanjay Singh, the DMK’s Mohammed Abdulla, the Congress’ Naseer Hussain and Mohamed Jawed.

The leaders said that the MCD Commissioner and Delhi Waqf Board’s administrator, Ashwini Kumar, altered the initial report of the Waqf Board without chief minister Atishi’s approval. The Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting was chaired by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee had called the representatives of the Delhi Waqf Board, Haryana Waqf Board, Punjab Waqf Board and Uttarakhand Waqf Board and Uttarakhand Waqf Board to record their Oral evidence on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Furthermore, the Committee also summoned Call for Justice (Group led by Chander Wadhwa, Trustee), Waqf Tenant Welfare Association, Delhi and Harbans Dunkall, President, Residents Welfare Association (All Blocks), B.K. Dutt Colony, New Delhi to record their views and suggestions.

Earlier in the last meeting held on October 22, the panel’s meeting witnessed a heated argument between BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee.

The Trinamool Congress MP allegedly threw a glass bottle in a fit of rage and later allegedly threw the glass towards Jagdambika Pal. The TMC MP hurt his hand in the process. TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee was later barred from attending one meeting of the JPC.

Notably, the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 seeks to bring sweeping reforms, introducing digitisation, stricter audits, transparency and legal mechanisms to reclaim illegally occupied properties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez inaugurated the TATA Aircraft complex for manufacturing C-295 aircraft in Gujarat’s Vadodara on Monday.

Around 56 aircraft are there under the C-295 programme, of which 16 are being delivered directly by the aircraft manufacturing company Reportedly, Airbus from Spain, and the remaining 40 will be manufactured at the complex, which is the first private sector Final Assembly Line (FAL) for military aircraft in India.

It will include the full development of a complete ecosystem from the manufacture to assembly, test and qualification, to delivery and maintenance of the complete lifecycle of the aircraft. In 2021,the Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 21,935-crore contract with Airbus Defense and Space SA, Spain for the supply of 56 aircraft.

Addressing the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the aircraft manufactured at the Vadodara facility will also be exported in the future. He added that the Tata-Airbus manufacturing facility will strengthen the India-Spain relations and the ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ mission.

Narendra Modi also paid tribute to former Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata, who is said to be the brain behind the project. Remembering the industrialist, PM Modi said that if Ratan Tata would have been among them, he would have been happy, but wherever his soul is, he would be happy. 

In the inauguration event, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said the project was originally conceived by Ratan Tata in 2012. He said that he will fail in his duty if he forgets to mention that this project was originally conceived more than a decade ago, in 2012, by the then Tata Sons Chairman, Ratan Tata, who led the whole concept to build a relationship with Airbus and created this partnership with Airbus and laid the foundation stone for this opportunity. He also remembered him for his visionary leadership in this very path-breaking initiative.

Notably, the C-295 is a transport aircraft of 5-10 tonne capacity with contemporary technology that will replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing Avro-748 planes. The aircraft is known to be a superior aircraft used for tactical transport of up to 71 troops or 50 paratroopers and for logistic operations to locations that are not accessible to current heavier aircraft.

The C-295 aircraft, called robust and reliable, with a flight endurance of up to 11 hours, and can carry out multi-role operations under all weather conditions. It can also routinely operate day as well as night combat missions from desert to maritime environments.

Reportedly, all the 56 aircraft under the agreement will also be fitted with an indigenous Electronic Warfare suite manufactured by Indian DPSUs – Bharat Electronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Limited.

A terrorist was gunned down on Monday after an attack on an Army vehicle in Jammu and Kashmir’s Akhnoor sector. Currently, the security forces are engaged in gunfire with terrorists in the area.

Reportedly, around 7 am in the Batal area, three terrorists opened multiple rounds of fire at the Army vehicle. Sources said that the security forces promptly cordoned off the area and launched a manhunt. The incident occurred as security forces in Jammu and Kashmir had implemented elaborate security measures in the Jammu region in preparation for the Diwali festival season.

Army officials said that an army vehicle was fired upon in the Battal area of Akhnoor. They added that no injury or casualty was reported, and a search operation has been launched. Alert troops foiled the likely terror attack.  

Nonetheless, in a concerning development, nearly 12 people, including two soldiers, have been killed in multiple gunfights across Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the valley, over the past week.

The terrorists on October 24 ambushed an Army vehicle near Gulmarg in Baramulla, killing two soldiers and two porters. Earlier in the day, a Uttar Pradesh teenager was injured in a separate attack in Tral, marking the third assault on migrant workers in Kashmir within a week.

Additionally, on October 20, terrorists killed seven people, including a doctor and six migrant workers, at a construction site in Sonamarg, Ganderbal district. 

Furthermore, another migrant worker from Bihar was attacked two days before this incident. In view of these repeated terrorist attacks, a high level meeting was chaired at Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor’s house on October 24.

Officials said that an investigation into the attack in Gaderbal district has indicated significant gaps in intelligence and undetected infiltration since last one year along the Line of Control (LoC).

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said on Saturday that every drop of innocent blood spilt in the valley will be avenged and all capabilities will be used to dismantle the terror ecosystem.