What is the Jallianwala Bagh Bill, and why is the Congress opposing it?

Union Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel on June 8 introduced the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill 2019, which seeks to remove the president of the Congress party as a permanent trustee to the Jallianwala Bagh Trust.

The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951 was enacted for the erection and management of a national memorial for those who lost their lives or were injured in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of April 13, 1919.

The Act provides for a trust and entails rules for the composition of the trust, including nominating trustees and their tenure.

In 2006, the Act was amended to change the composition of the trust, wherein nominated trustees were given a fixed term of five years, and auditing the accounts of the trust were enabled.

The current amendment seeks "to delete the President of the Indian National Congress” as a trustee and to have the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha as a trustee. The bill mentions that in the case there is no Leader of Opposition, then the Leader of the single largest Opposition Party will be made the trustee.

The bill also seeks to empower the central government to terminate a nominated trustee before the expiry of his/her term.

The move comes in during the centenary commemoration of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919, when the British Army opened fire at a peaceful gathering of unarmed people in Amritsar under the command of General Reginald Dyer.

The Congress has cried foul on the introduction of the Bill, with Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor saying, “The Bill should be stopped. It is a national memorial, do not betray our history and heritage.”

My objection to introducing the Jallianwala Bagh Amendment Bill today : https://t.co/DsOd2a3Gh2. Of course the Govt’s vociferous majority prevailed.

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— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 8, 2019

Responding to the opposition, Patel said the Congress had not done anything for the memorial in the last 40-50 years, adding that he would be responding at length when the Bill comes up for debate and passing.

The Bill was passed in the winter session of the 16th Lok Sabha, but was rejected by the Rajya Sabha, and hence it had lapsed. It was reintroduced on Monday by the culture minister.

Currently, the trust is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has on board president of the Congress (Rahul Gandhi for now), Union Culture Minister, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, the chief minister and governor of Punjab. Besides, eminent personalities are nominated members of the trust – Virendra Kataria, Ambika Soni and Harvendra Singh Hanspal were nominated in 2013 for a period of five years.