Waqf Bill Will Disenfranchise Muslim Community Further

Has the Modi government once again lost a golden opportunity to bring about an overarching law which would provide some homogeneity to our diverse religious and charitable organisations? If he had done so, this could have proved a first step towards having a central Uniform Civil Code and not the present piecemeal attempts being introduced on a state-wise basis. There are disputes around several Hindu temples and Sikh gurudwara properties as there are around Waqf properties.

When former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat introduced the controversial Char Dham Devsthanan Management Act, which gave the state government control of 50 key temples, including the shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, the powerful lobby of priests stopped Rawat from entering the Kedarnath shrine and warned they would work to throw the state BJP government out of power. Fearful of a negative fallout in the upcoming state elections, the BJP chose to replace Trivendra Singh as chief minister as also to repeal the act.

The BJP is not interested in creating some equanimity in our different religious institutions. From the start, they have pursued an anti-minority divisive politics, and this has paid them electoral dividends. Ratcheting up the Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 is part of this overall strategy, and every few weeks, some new morsel is thrown at the public, obviously to keep up this anti-Islam phobia.

Several explanations were offered by a galaxy of BJP ministers on the floor of Parliament, led by none other than Home Minister Amit Shah, about how this latest Waqf Board amendment would help bring about greater transparency and efficiency in its functioning and also ensure a reach out to the poorer sections of the Muslim population.

Noble intentions, but the nature of these new provisions seems to point in the opposite directions. The Waqf Board, which is already an over-regulated body, is going to end up becoming more top-heavy. The CEO of a Waqf Board will now be a nominated joint-level secretary officer, and the key Waqf tribunal will be headed by a district judge. Again, the survey commissioner, a government officer who has studied these land issues in the past and has expertise on these matters, will be replaced by an already overburdened district magistrate.

The Karnataka Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain questioned such a move, pointing out that the maximum disputes of the Waqf Board on land issues are related to the government, and it is most unlikely, in these politically charged times, that a government servant will take the side of the Waqf Board.

The government, under this new amendment, has armed itself with draconian powers in that if the Waqf land is not registered within a period of six months, it can be taken away by the state.

The home minister did try to assuage the feelings of the minority community by stating, “No non-Islamic member would be a part of Waqf,” but non-Muslims would be appointed to both the Waqf Board and Waqf Councils, and the chairman of the Waqf Board would be non-Muslim.

Article 26 of the Constitution allows every religious group the right to manage their own religious properties, and this decision is likely to be challenged in a court of law. A counter point to this is whether Hindu priests will allow non-Hindus to become members of their temple boards. Obviously not. To cite one example. The Shri Mata Vasihno Devi temple trust in Jammu has the Lt Governor as its chairman, but in case the Lt Governor is a non-Hindu, he has the right to appoint a Hindu as chairman in his place.

The fact of the matter is that the Waqf Boards control 8.7 lakh properties spanning 9.4 lakh acres across India with an estimated value of Rs 1.2 lakh crore. It is the third largest landowner after the defence and railways, but while the ownership of this land is with the government, the Waqf Board land is property, Muslims claim, that is dedicated to God to be used for religious and charitable purposes comprising largely of cemeteries, mosques, dargahs, madrassas and shelter homes.

Several Muslim intellectuals have often called for greater financial accountability in the management of Waqf Boards and an annual auditing of their accounts, including the accounts of the muttawalis.

But sadly, this does not seem to be the objective with which this amendment was hurried through. Gogoi, Congress MP and deputy leader of the Opposition, accused the Modi government of having misled the people about having held a wide range of consultations before bringing the bill to Parliament when the fact was that in 2023, the minority affairs committee had conducted five meetings in which the subject of the Waqf bill was not discussed even once.

It is amazing at what levels the ruling party has gone to misinform the house. The home minister misled the house when he said the UPA gave away 123 properties to Waqf. Supriya Shrinate, Congress MP, in a series of tweets emphasised that at the time the British had decided to move their capital to New Delhi, large parcels of land were acquired around Raisina Hill, many of which comprised Muslim religious properties, including mosques and graveyards. The British reached an agreement with the Muslims whereby 123 properties remained under Muslim management, and these were subsequently transferred to the Waqf Board in 1954. This was challenged by the DDA and the Land and Development Office, but to cut a long story short, when the BJP came to power in 2014, they set up a two-member committee to review this issue, which reversed this ownership claim of the Delhi Waqf Board. The DWB filed a petition challenging this decision, and this is where the matter stands.

Another piece of fake news being circulated by the BJP ministers and MPs is that the village Thiruchenthurai, on the banks of the Cauvery river with a 1500-year-old Sundareswar temple, is Waqf land. When an investigation was done on the facts of the case, it was found that when the land revenue records were being digitised, the revenue officer heading this exercise had “mistakenly” claimed this was land that belonged to the Waqf Board.

The problem is that much demonisation of the Muslim community has been done during the last decade, made worse by a pliant media. The Muslim community should have used social media and other channels to counter this by developing a core team of outstanding spokespersons. This was not done, and they missed an opportunity to reach out to the public at large.

It must also be remembered that the government’s decision, two years ago, to take over land belonging to our 62 cantonments was also an attempt to `monetise’ these cantonment and forest lands. Several army officers have described this as a massive land grab exercise because it allowed the executive to seamlessly take over large chunks of army land.

The second largest owner of land is the railways, which owns around 4.90 lakh acres. There are no records as to how much of this has been sold to private parties, but there is no doubt that the government is determined that the Waqf Board must also work towards maintaining profitability.

The portends do not look very hopeful because in Uttarakhand, during the month of Ramzan alone this year, 136 out of the state’s 400 madrassas following the CBSE syllabus were ordered to be shut down. Opposition leaders have also highlighted in Wednesday’s debate that the BJP has been in power in some states for over two decades but have made no attempt to introduce any reforms in the state Waqf Boards. This is obviously part of the BJP government’s attempt to defame the minority communities and further divide Indian society on religious lines.

Rashme Sehgal is an author and an independent journalist