No voting took place on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha; it was sent to the JPC
A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows a man claiming that 232 votes were cast in support of the Waqf Board the Lok Sabha, despite there being only 24 Muslim MPs, and that 208 Hindu MPs voting in favour of the Waqf board. Let’s verify the claim through this article.
Claim: 232 votes were cast in favour of Waqf Board in the Lok Sabha while there were only 24 Muslim MPs, implying 208 Hindu MPs voted in favour.
Fact: As per official Lok Sabha records, no voting took place on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha; it was referred to the JPC. We reviewed the parliamentary proceedings on 08 August 2024 and 09 August 2024, during which the motion to refer the bill to the JPC was adopted. After the JPC report, the bill will be brought back to the Parliament with changes if any. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
For more information, we conducted a Google keyword search and found that, according to the information available on the official website of Parliament, on 08 August 2024, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju proposed referring the ‘Waqf Amendment Bill 2024’ to the ‘Joint Parliamentary Committee’ (JPC) for detailed consideration.
Following this, a 31-member JPC was formed on 09 August 2024, consisting of 21 members elected from the Lok Sabha and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha. The committee is chaired by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal.
We reviewed the parliamentary proceedings on 08 August 2024 and 09 August 2024, where the motion to refer the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 to the JPC was adopted. No voting took place on either day. After tabling the JPC report, the bill will be brought back to the Lok Sabha with changes if any for further discussion and voting.
To verify the person in the video, we conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes, which led us to the same video uploaded on Instagram on 05 October 2024 under the name ‘Sarvhit Sanatani Sena.’ Further investigation revealed that this Instagram page is managed by Praveen Mahuliyaar Shukla, who identifies as an entrepreneur, influencer, and activist. His bio confirms that he is the founder of ‘Sarvhit Sanatani Sena,’ where he discusses religious and social topics. He also creates technology-related videos on the @hindustani_helper account.
We reached out to Praveen Mahuliyaar Shukla for clarification on which voting he was referring to. We will update this article as and when the response is received.
To sum up, no voting took place on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha; it was referred to the JPC.