After hours of heated debate, India’s parliament has passed a controversial bill that seeks to change how properties worth billions of dollars donated by Muslims over centuries are governed.
The upper house passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, early on Friday, a day after the lower house cleared it amid strong opposition and criticism.
Muslim leaders and opposition parties say the bill is “unconstitutional” and infringes on the rights of India’s Muslim-minority community.
However, the government says the bill aims to make the management of waqf (Muslim properties) more transparent.
The bill will now be sent to India’s president for her assent before it becomes law. This approval is expected to come soon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the passing of the bill a “watershed moment”.
In a post on X, he said the waqf system [the system of governing waqf or Muslim properties] had been “synonymous with a lack of transparency and accountability” for decades.
“The legislation passed by parliament will boost transparency and also safeguard people’s rights,” he wrote.
However, the opposition has been vociferous in their condemnation of the bill and allege that it is another ploy by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to dilute the rights of minorities.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge noted that while 288 members voted in favor of the bill in the lower house, a significant 232 opposed it.
“From this, we can guess that despite opposition from various parties, this bill was brought arbitrarily,” he wrote on X.
Legal website LiveLaw reported on Friday that lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party and a fierce critic of the bill, had challenged it in the Supreme Court.
