The Waqf Amendment Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha after a 12-hour intense debate, with a vote of 288-232.
The legislation is set to be presented in the Rajya Sabha later in the day. The bill seeks to modify the law from 1995 that regulates Waqf properties.
The contentious elements in the revised bill encompass the obligatory presence of two non-Muslim members in both the Central Waqf Council and Waqf Boards.
The bill also stipulates that only individuals who have practised Islam for a minimum of five years are eligible to donate properties to Waqf.
According to the proposed law, government properties designated as Waqf will no longer belong to the government, and the local Collector will be responsible for determining their ownership.
Expectedly, the Congress said the government was trying to “defame (and) disenfranchise minorities” and staging a “4D assault on the Constitution”. According to a media outlet, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi used strong words like “tearing up the law like Mahatma Gandhi did” with British law in South Africa.
The government argued that the bill was about property and its management, not religion. Union Minister Amit Shah presented a long list of properties which, he claimed, were given for Waqf. The list included land belonging to temples, other religions, the government, and others.
“Properties in (Delhi’s) Lutyens zone went to Waqf, and they started taking over government land. In Tamil Nadu, a 400-year-old temple property was declared as Waqf’s. Land for a five-star establishment was given to Waqf for 12,000 a month… Several properties belonging to different religions were declared as Waqf property, including Chandra Shekhar Azad Park in Prayagraj,” he said. “You cannot donate someone else’s property. You donate something which is yours.”
Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs of India Kiren Rijiju alluded to a case going on since 1970. It involved several properties in Delhi, including the old Parliament building. “If we had not introduced this amendment today, even the building we are sitting in could have been claimed as Waqf property,” he said.
“In 2013, the extreme Waqf law was made overnight for the purpose of appeasement. As a result, 123 properties in Delhi’s Lutyens [Bungalow] Zone were handed over to the Waqf just 25 days before the elections,” he said.
He didn’t believe that non-Muslims would be included in the Waqf board. He was quoted as saying, “Those who take care of religious property, in that board, non-Muslims won’t be in that. We don’t want to even interfere there. The Opposition is trying to scare the minority and build their vote banks.”
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of introducing the Waqf Bill to ‘divide the country’. She has vowed to challenge it through an amendment once a new government is voted to power.
