Lok Sabha passes controversial Waqf invoice after heated debate

[ad_1] SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India’s parliament early Thursday handed a controversial invoice moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities to amend legal guidelines governing Muslim land endowments.

The invoice would add non-Muslims to boards that handle waqf land endowments and provides the federal government a bigger function in validating their land holdings. The federal government says the adjustments will assist to combat corruption and mismanagement whereas selling range, however critics worry that it'll additional undermine the rights of the nation’s Muslim minority and might be used to confiscate historic mosques and different property.

Debate within the Decrease Home was heated because the Congress-led opposition firmly opposed the proposal, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory towards Muslims. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Occasion lacks a majority within the Decrease Home, however its allies helped to cross the invoice.

The controversy that started Wednesday ended with 288 members voting for the invoice whereas 232 have been towards it early Thursday. The invoice will now must clear the Higher Home earlier than it's despatched to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent to develop into regulation.

Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju launched the invoice to vary a 1995 regulation that set guidelines for the foundations and arrange state-level boards to manage them.

Many Muslim teams in addition to the opposition events say the proposal is discriminatory, politically motivated and an try by Modi’s ruling get together to weaken minority rights.

A Muslim man affords prayers at Mahim Dargah, a Muslim shrine in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Rafiq Maqbool)

Learn Extra The invoice was first launched in parliament final yr, and opposition leaders have mentioned a few of their subsequent proposals on it have been ignored. The federal government has mentioned opposition events are utilizing rumors to discredit them and block transparency in managing the endowments.

What’s a waqf? Waqfs are a standard sort of Islamic charitable basis through which a donor completely units apart property — typically however not all the time actual property — for spiritual or charitable functions.

Waqfs in India management 872,000 properties that cowl 405,000 hectares (1 million acres) of land, value an estimated $14.22 billion. A few of these endowments date again centuries, and lots of are used for mosques, seminaries, graveyards and orphanages.

Regulation would change who runs waqfs In India, waqf property is managed by semi-official boards, one for every state and federally run union territory. The regulation would require non-Muslims to be appointed to the boards.

Presently, waqf boards are staffed by Muslims, like comparable our bodies that assist administer different spiritual charities.

Through the parliamentary debate, Residence Minister Amit Shah mentioned non-Muslims can be included in waqf boards just for administration functions and serving to run the endowments easily. He added that they weren't there to intrude in spiritual affairs.

“The (non-Muslim) members will monitor whether or not the administration is operating as per regulation or not, and whether or not the donations are getting used for what they have been meant or not,” he mentioned.

Kashmiri Muslims pray contained in the shrine of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani, generally often called Dastageer Sahib, in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mukhtar Khan)

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A Kashmiri Muslim man prays contained in the shrine of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani, generally often called Dastageer Sahib, in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mukhtar Khan)

Learn Extra Probably the most controversial adjustments is to possession guidelines, which might impression historic mosques, shrines and graveyards since many such properties lack formal documentation as they have been donated with out authorized data many years, and even centuries, in the past.

Questions on title Different adjustments might impression mosques on land held in centuries-old waqfs.

Radical Hindu teams have laid claim to several mosques around India , arguing they're constructed on the ruins of essential Hindu temples. Many such circumstances are pending in courts.

The regulation would require waqf boards to hunt approval from a district degree officer to substantiate the waqfs’ claims to property.

Muslims go away after providing prayers at Mahim Dargah, a Muslim shrine in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Rafiq Maqbool)

Learn Extra Critics say that may undermine the board and will result in Muslims being stripped of their land. It’s not clear how typically the boards can be requested to substantiate such claims to land.

“The Waqf (Modification) Invoice is a weapon aimed toward marginalising Muslims and usurping their private legal guidelines and property rights,” Rahul Gandhi, the primary opposition chief, wrote on social media platform X. He mentioned the invoice was an “assault on the Structure” by the BJP and its allies “aimed toward Muslims immediately however units a precedent to focus on different communities sooner or later.”

Fears amongst Muslims Whereas many Muslims agree that waqfs endure from corruption, encroachments and poor administration, in addition they worry that the brand new regulation might give India’s Hindu nationalist authorities far higher management over Muslim properties, significantly at a time when assaults towards minority communities have develop into extra aggressive beneath Modi, with Muslims typically focused for all the things from their food and clothing styles to inter-religious marriages .

A Kashmiri Muslim girl prays contained in the shrine of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani, generally often called Dastageer Sahib, in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mukhtar Khan)

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Bashir Ahmad, a Kashmiri shopkeeper, rests at his store contained in the Auqaf Market in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mukhtar Khan)

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Kashmiri males buy footwear contained in the Auqaf Market in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mukhtar Khan)

Learn Extra Final month, the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom mentioned in its annual report that spiritual freedom situations in India continued to deteriorate whereas Modi and his get together “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation towards Muslims and different spiritual minorities” throughout final yr’s election marketing campaign.

Modi’s authorities says India is run on democratic ideas of equality and no discrimination exists within the nation.

Muslims, who're 14% of India’s 1.4 billion inhabitants, are the most important minority group within the Hindu-majority nation however they're additionally the poorest, a 2013 authorities survey discovered.

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