Chicago – April 04, 2025
Indian lawmakers are debating a controversial bill that seeks to change how properties worth billions of dollars donated by Indian Muslims over centuries are governed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has presented the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 – which brings in dozens of amendments to an existing law – in the lower house of parliament, where it is being discussed.
The government says the bill will introduce transparency into the management of waqf, as the properties are called.
But opposition parties and Muslim groups have opposed it, calling it an attempt to weaken the constitutional rights of India’s largest religious minority.
The bill was first tabled in parliament in August last year but was sent to a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) after an outcry from opposition members.
Reports say the version presented on Wednesday by federal Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju incorporates 25 changes suggested by the sharply divided committee that included opposition members.
The bill will be passed in the Lok Sabha, or lower house, if it gets more votes than the halfway mark of 272.
Most opposition parties including the Congress are expected to vote against the bill. But the coalition led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to have enough numbers to get it passed, barring a major surprise. It will then be sent to the Rajya Sabha, or upper house, for discussion and passage.
If it is passed by both houses of parliament, it will be sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent before it becomes law.
Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress MP and leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the opposition was united and would work to defeat “the unconstitutional and divisive agenda of the Modi government on the Waqf Amendment Bill”.
Muslim groups have argued that the bill “aims to weaken the waqf laws and pave the way for the seizure and destruction of waqf properties”.
Moving the bill in parliament on Wednesday, Rijiju accused the opposition of spreading rumours that the bill would take away the rights of Muslims.
“The Waqf (Amendment) Bill that we have introduced includes several recommendations from the JPC, which we have accepted and incorporated into this bill,” he said.
But opposition members have alleged that the JPC accepted the changes suggested by the BJP and its allies while rejecting all amendments they proposed.
