The groundwork for bringing the bill was laid last year when lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a PIL in March 2023 challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Waqf Act
Asad Mirza | Clarion India
THE government’s plan to amend the Waqf Act, 1995 has come under severe criticism from both the secular parties and Muslim organisations. It also highlights the fact that the so-called Muslim leaders themselves are not ready to set their own houses right. Taking advantage of the reported irregularities in many states’ Waqf Boards, the government seems to have taken this step to show them their place in the country’s politics, after giving them a tight slap earlier on the issue of triple talaq.
The Centre seeks to make amendments to the Waqf Act, 1995 to restrict the powers of the Waqf Board. India Today has reported that there are 40 amendments aimed to restrict the Waqf Board’s authority to designate any property as “Waqf property”.
“As per the proposed amendments, all claims made by the Waqf Board on properties will undergo mandatory verification. A mandatory verification process is proposed for properties claimed by the Waqf Board.”
Waqf Act, 1995 was established to regulate Auqaf, meaning assets donated and designated as Waqf — by a waqif, — an individual who dedicates his/her property for purposes recognised by Muslim law as pious, religious, or charitable.
The proposed amendments talk about inclusivity by including Muslim women members in various state bodies. In fact, Muslims themselves are not against this, as Islam permits a woman to be a mutawalli – manager of a Waqf property, or be a member of any Waqf Board, as it is a managerial position and does not require any specific training of Islamic laws, according to a scholar, associated with the Islamic Fiqh Academy, Delhi. Even the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has several women members, he added further. So, this excuse is to mislead the wider populace that Muslims are against including a woman member in the various Waqf bodies.
The groundwork for bringing this bill was laid last year when lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a PIL in March 2023; the Centre had told the Delhi High Court that nearly 120 writ petitions challenging one or more provisions of the Waqf Act were pending before various courts in the country.
Upadhyay had challenged the validity of certain provisions of the Waqf Act and sought a direction from the Centre to enact a “uniform law for trust and trustees, charities and charitable institutions, and religious endowments and institutions.
The petitioner said the Waqf Act, 1995 was made under the garb of managing waqf properties but there were no similar laws for followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Bahaism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. “Hence, it is against secularism, unity and integrity of the nation.”
Here, one is forced to ask whether the government was ready to regulate various trusts across India, which manage various temples from Badrinath/Kedarnath to Tirupati, on the same grounds. Will it be able to force these trusts to include women members, to increase inclusivity?
To further complicate the matters and sow the seeds of discord amongst the Muslim community, the government wants to constitute a separate Board of Auqaf for Bohras and Aghakhanis.
As the government prepares to amend the Waqf Act of 1995, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju said there is a long-standing demand from “poor Muslim groups” to amend the legislation.
But he failed to identify these “poor Muslim groups”. The only group which has so far come forward to support the amendments is the All India Sufi Sajjadanashin Council (AISSC), which has welcomed the government’s move and accused vested interests of misleading the Muslim community. However, AISSC does not represent the Indian Muslims and does not have Muslim clerics of different schools of thought as its members.
A copy of the bill, accessed by The Hindu, claims that the proposed legislation will ensure “representation of Muslims and non-Muslims” in the Central Waqf Council and the State Waqf Boards. Now why should non-Muslim members be included in an organisation, related to the welfare of Muslims? Once again, the earlier question arises, will Hindu temples and religious trusts allow any Muslim to be their members?
To save itself from criticism, the government advances the argument that it is acting on the recommendations of the high-level committee under the chairmanship of Justice (Retired) Rajinder Sachar and the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf and Central Waqf Council, chaired by KR Rehman, though on their recommendations and detailed consultation with other stakeholders, comprehensive amendments were made in the Act in the year 2013.
Most Muslim organisations across India have vociferously condemned the proposed amendments. AIMPLB spokesman Dr SQR Ilyas said, “The BJP government always wanted to do this. Following the conclusion of the 2024 (Lok Sabha) elections, we thought that there would be a change in the BJP’s attitude, but that’s not the case. I, however, feel that this is not the right move.”
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has decried the proposed bill, accusing the BJP of pursuing a “Hindutva agenda”. “These amendments are with the intention of taking away waqf properties. The real reason for this act is to affect the freedom of religion,” he alleged.
It is not Muslim bodies or leaders alone who are condemning the proposed amendments; even opposition parties are against them. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has said: “We will be against it (Waqf Act amendment bill),” Yadav told reporters that the “BJP’s only work is to divide Hindus and Muslims, snatch the rights of Muslim brothers and work on a system to snatch the rights given to them in the Constitution.”
ET Mohammed Basheer of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) said the move on the part of the government is ill-intentioned. “If such legislation comes, we will very strongly oppose it. We will also speak with like-minded parties,” he told reporters outside Parliament. If the government goes ahead with the bill, it must be prepared for strong opposition, Basheer added.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi alleged that the BJP-led government wants to run away from any meaningful discussion on the Union budget and, therefore, it has come up with the Waqf issue.
CPI(M) MP Amra Ram said the BJP believes in “divisive politics” and instead of strengthening Waqf boards, they are trying to interfere with them. Another CPI(M) MP Sudama Prasad said the BJP-led government’s only intention is to promote a divisive agenda. “Bring a bill to deal with unemployment. But they are 24X7 only looking at divisive agenda like mandir-masjid and Hindustan-Pakistan,” he said.
JMM’s Mahua Maji has said that a one-sided view should not be taken and if any amendments are to be made, the government should listen to all sides.
Hashim Soofi, a member of the Punjab Waqf Board, said the government was bent on spreading hatred among Hindus and Muslims by making such moves, ignoring that benefits of properties and institutes run by Waqf Boards were equally shared by members of all communities, including Hindus and Sikhs.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on Monday asserted that bringing about any change in the status and nature of waqf properties or making it easier for the government or any individual to “misuse” them is unacceptable. The prominent Muslim body also stressed that it is prepared to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court if a move is made to weaken the Waqf Boards.
Asad Mirza is a New Delhi-based political commentator and a media consultant. The views expressed here are the author’s own. Clarion India does not necessarily concur with them.