NEW DELHI: The Indian Muslim community has strongly criticized the recently introduced Waqf Amendment Bill 2024, which seeks to grant more administrative powers to the district administration over Waqf properties.
The bill, an amendment to the Waqf Act of 1995, has been rejected by several prominent Muslim organizations. Mohammad Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi, General Secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), condemned the bill as discriminatory, claiming it infringes on the constitutional rights of Muslims and undermines their ability to manage their religious properties.
He further emphasized that the bill was communally driven and opposed the concentration of authority in the hands of district officials.
Similarly, Yasoob Abbas, the General Secretary of the All India Shia Personal Law Board (AISPLB), called the bill unacceptable and announced plans to challenge it in the Supreme Court should it pass. Abbas raised concerns over the bill’s potential to harm Waqf properties by transferring significant powers to district magistrates and commissioners, which could lead to mismanagement and encroachment.
Religious scholar Dr. Rehan Akhtar, an assistant professor at Aligarh Muslim University, also expressed fears that the bill could lead to the seizure or tampering with Waqf properties, which are managed by the Muslim community for religious and charitable purposes. He urged that a law be enacted to prevent such encroachments.
The bill has also sparked strong opposition from India’s political factions, particularly the opposition alliance. Gaurav Gogoi of Congress criticized the government’s move, accusing it of attempting to “disenfranchise” the minority community, while Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party claimed that the bill could mark a significant political setback for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Opposition members in Parliament also questioned a clause in the bill that restricts the establishment of Waqf properties to those who have been practicing Muslims for five years, a provision that has stirred further controversy.
As the bill proceeds through legislative channels, the opposition alliance, comprising various regional and national parties, has vowed to intensify their campaign against it, arguing that it undermines the principles of the Constitution and polarizes the nation along religious lines.
India’s parliament passed a bill on Thursday to reform the hugely wealthy Muslim land-owning organizations, with the Hindu nationalist government arguing that it will boost accountability, while the opposition called it an “attack” on a minority.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government argues the bill will bring more transparency to more than a dozen powerful Waqf boards, which control properties gifted by Muslim charitable endowments.
There are around two dozen Waqf boards across India, owning some 900,000 acres (365,000 hectares), a multi-billion-dollar property empire that makes them one of the biggest landholders, alongside the railways and the defense forces.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who tabled the bill on Wednesday, said it would check corruption and mismanagement and reduce the hold of a few entrenched groups.
The bill was passed by the lower house of parliament after a marathon debate that stretched into the early hours of Thursday.
It is expected to be passed by the upper house of parliament later on Thursday, granting significantly larger powers to civil servants in the supervision of Waqf boards.
Amit Shah, the interior minister and a close Modi aide, said the changes would help “catch the people who lease out properties” for personal gains.
“That money, which could be used to aid the development of minorities, is being stolen,” he said.
Non-Muslims, who will be included in the boards as part of the new bill, will only be involved in “administrative” matters, Shah said.
However, opposition parties accuse the government of pushing “polarizing politics” at the expense of India’s Muslim minority of 200 million.
“The Waqf (Amendment) Bill is a weapon aimed at marginalizing Muslims and usurping their personal laws and property rights,” opposition Congress Party chief Rahul Gandhi said.
Gandhi called it an “attack” by Hindu nationalists, which he charged was “aimed at Muslims today but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future.”
Opposition parties see the bill as part of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) efforts to win favor with its right-wing Hindu base.
Modi’s BJP has backed right-wing claims of mosques built over ancient Hindu temples and led efforts to construct a grand Hindu temple at the site of a demolished Mughal-era mosque in Ayodhya.
