The report of Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is scheduled to be presented in the Lok Sabha on February 3. However, the manner in which it was prepared was a flagrant disregard for all parliamentary rules and procedures. It is claimed that portions of Opposition members’ dissent notes were deleted without their permission. The JPC on Waqf’s consultation procedure was a farce because of these factors.
Opposition members have harshly criticised the JPC, led by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal. They claim that the chairman has engaged in political behaviour and violated procedural rules. They contend that the committee’s operations were characterised by excessive speed and selective stakeholder participation, and that the process lacked openness.
Sections of JPC member and Congress MPSyed Naseer Hussain’s dissent note on the bill were removed without his knowledge.On his X handle, Hussain expresses disapproval of what he called an effort to silence critics.
“As a Member of the Joint Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, I had submitted a detailed dissent note opposing the Bill. Shockingly, parts of my dissent note have been redacted without my knowledge!”
“The Joint Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was already reduced to a farce, but now they’ve stooped even lower – censoring dissenting voices of Opposition MPs! What are they so scared of? Why this attempt to silence us?” he asked.
Another Opposition member Mohibbullah Nadvi of Samajwadi Party said the chairman changed the agenda without even informing the Opposition members of the panel. Speaking with Radiance, Mohibbullah Nadvi alleged that during the course of consultations, Jagdambika Pal followed his party’s instructions and paid little attention to the established procedures or the opposing viewpoints. “At no point did he (Jagdambika Pal) appear to be an impartial panel referee; rather, his actions demonstrated that he was carrying out a specific political party’s objective,”saidNadvi, representing Rampur in Lok Sabha.
One prominent opponent of the Waqf Bill is Asaduddin Owaisi, JPCmember and president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. Because there weren’t enough members from the Opposition camp on the panel, he presented a list of changes that were turned down. In reality, Owaisi had suggested amending 43 of the bill’s 44 provisions.
Owaisi outlines the grounds for this in a thorough 229-page statement. Following the meeting to approve the draft report, he told a news channel that Opposition members believed the legislation would end the Waqf Board’s power and that the proposed amendments would ensure the Waqf Boards lost several properties.
“The Hon’ble Committee has been unduly captured by partisan sentiments, as evidenced by the disproportionate attention given to a few communal voices that supported the majoritarian changes proposed in the current Bill, in stark contrast to the substantial majority of stakeholders who strongly criticised it,” Owaisi said.
“At a time when divisive elements have raised mischievous claims questioning the status of ancient mosques and dargahs as places of Muslim religious worship, the bill seeks to weaken the defence of the Muslim side in these disputes by removing the statutory recognition given to ‘waqf-by-user’, a rule of evidence that hitherto allowed long use of a property as a waqf to be a sufficient basis for the property to be statutorily recognised as a waqf,” Owaisi said in his dissent note.
He further underlined that the consultative process was mere eyewash.
“The Joint Committee received representations opposing the proposed amendments from an overwhelming number of Muslim organisations. These organisations between themselves represent a very large portion of Muslims in India. The fact that the erudite arguments and detailed reasons put forward by each of these stakeholders were not accepted by the Joint Committee demonstrates that this ‘consultative process’ was a mere eyewash and the Joint Committee in its draft report has been blind, if not actively inimical to Muslim interests and has reached what were in any event foregone conclusions.”
The All India Muslim Personal Law, which spearheaded the movement against the controversial waqf bill, reacted strongly to the JPC report. In a joint statement, the Board stated that the Muslim Personal Law Board and other Muslim organisations have made it clear time and time again that they will not tolerate the usurpation or manipulation of Waqf properties. Muslims overwhelmingly oppose the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024. The JPC has conducted its business in a way that disrespects all democratic traditions and ideals, demonstrating a flagrant contempt for legislative boundaries and procedures. In addition to sending emails opposing the bill in millions, the Muslim Personal Law Board and all Muslim organisations both orally and in writing made their case to the JPC. As a result of the Board’s action, 36.6 million emails were sent, and other Muslim organisations also emailed JPC their opposition to the Bill.
Speaking with Radiance, Board spokesperson, DrSQR Ilyas said that from the beginning itself it was clear that JPC is nothing but eyewash. All 44 amendments proposed were nothing to do with transparency and making Waqf beneficial to poor people, rather they were brought to take away the protections given to waqf properties, such as removing sections on, ‘Waqf-by-User’, exemptions from law of limitations, section 40, bringing non-Muslims in Waqf Boards and Central Waqf Council, taking away of Waqf and giving it to Collector or DM.”
Dr Ilyas added,“Nearly 5 crore Muslims opposed these amendments by sending an email to Chairman JPC. All major Muslim Organisations and institutions met the JPC and opposed the amendments but of no use. Even the JPC rejected all the 44 proposals made by the Opposition members and undertook the 14 proposals given by BJP members.”
Echoing the general perception in the community about the government’s move on waqf, Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, Chairman Zakat Foundation of India, said it is a statutory attempt to take over Waqf properties. He emphasised that the community should take lessons from this crude attempt.
“Currently, Muslims ka iqbalbulandnahinhai. We have to persevere systematically to reclaim that status. Since Independence, there have been very few individual initiatives to donate personal land and wealth to establish even institutions and hospitals. But, collective thought process and decision making aimed at long-term community uplift through research and ground level mass motivation coupled with systematic institutionalisation has been tremendously lacking. We have been accustomed to political crumbs here and there and individual/family political favours. As a community, we have not been preparing well for our proper place in the national matrix, unlike the RSS,” Dr Mahmood said.
He warned that such a vacuum within the Muslim community could not withstand what was to come. Ironically, in 1990s the effect of dissipation of USSR coupled with the effort to find another common enemy as a talking point for democratic elections in the West chronologically coincided in India with the demolition of Babri Masjid and the beginning of aggressive anti-Muslim agenda of Hindutva, later rechristened as Hindu Rashtra. So, there is no Muslim central minister and in its 2024 Manifesto, the BJP didn’t even mention the word “Minority.”
The natural corollary was to be the statutory takeover of Waqf properties that was not unexpected. Through our collective lack of vision and inaction over decades we’ve been giving this to them on the platter, he added.
Meanwhile, sensing impending dangers to waqf institutions, former J&K chief minister andPDP president, Mehbooba Mufti urged Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, pleading with them to help in halting the controversial Waqf Amendment Bill. She said the proposed Bill not only violates the religious and constitutional rights of Muslims but also seeks to seize these properties by diluting the autonomy of the Waqf Act. She sent the letter to both the chief ministers as the NDA government’s survival hinges on their support. Later she posted it on X.
Dr Ilyas said if this malicious bill is presented in Parliament, all Opposition MPs, including BJP allies unitedly must vote against it.
The last resort is more intense political lobbying with friendly parties followed by approaching the judiciary after the new law is enacted, Dr Mahmood suggested.
“Yes, such Herculean deprivation of the community should awaken us to realise the root cause of why we landed ourselves in this miserable abyss. It’s never too late to mend. History tells us that communities have been staging grand comebacks through rational, imperative, long term ground level systematic selfless work,” he told the community.