The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday said the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill would be taken up for discussion and voting in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, springing a surprise on the Opposition that had been led to believe that the bill would only be introduced and not passed.
The government’s decision, which comes just three days before the conclusion of the budget session, has set the stage for a showdown in Parliament over the polarising issue.
Government sources said they were determined to pass the bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, followed by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The early signs of a raucous debate over the bill were visible when key Opposition leaders staged a walkout from the business advisory committee meeting of the Lok Sabha where the government proposed an eight-hour discussion on the bill.
“We have never heard of the Opposition being compelled to leave the business advisory committee meeting. This happened because the Opposition’s demands were repeatedly ignored,” the Congress’s deputy leader in the House, Gaurav Gogoi,
told reporters.
He said the government ignored the Opposition’s demand to hold discussions on other key issues such as voter duplication and President’s rule in Manipur.
Besides Gogoi, the Trinamool Congress’s Kalyan Banerjee and the DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran walked out of the meeting.
The government accused the Opposition leaders of obstructing a discussion on the bill.
“We want a discussion on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill but the Opposition is trying to block the legislation by resorting to fearmongering. The walkout by the Opposition was an excuse to avoid discussion,” parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters.
Rijiju, also the minority affairs minister, will pilot the bill, which seeks to improve the management and administration of waqf properties in the country.
The government is confident of pushing the bill through Parliament with the support of Nitish Kumar’s JDU and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP.
The Opposition and Muslim outfits had hoped the two BJP allies would oppose the bill, given their track record of attracting minority voters in their respective states.
Initially, the BJP was in a bind over the bill’s impact on the Bihar Assembly polls later this year. The BJP leadership had also feared that the JDU would prefer the bill to be withheld till the polls were over.
During his visit to Bihar last week, home minister Amit Shah managed to secure a green signal from Nitish, sources said. This led the BJP to change its mind and go full throttle on the bill’s passage.
Both the BJP and the Congress have issued whips to ensure the presence of their MPs in Parliament for voting on the bill. Caught off guard, the Opposition hurriedly convened a meeting to decide their floor strategy.
The BJP also eyed a division in the Opposition ranks.
“Waqf amendment bill is in Parliament tomorrow! Let’s see if Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena follows Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology or will it follow in the footsteps of Rahul Gandhi and continue to appease him,” Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis posted on X.
Ever since it was tabled in the Lok Sabha last August, the waqf bill has been a flashpoint between the Treasury and Opposition benches amid protests by Muslim organisations. The bill was referred to a 31-member joint parliamentary committee (JPC) for scrutiny.
A waqf property is an endowment made by a Muslim for a religious, educational or charitable cause and cannot be taken over for other purposes, according to a 1995 Act. The bill moved by the Modi government proposes 44 amendments that would significantly reduce the waqf board’s power to designate properties as waqf properties.
A JPC cleared the waqf bill, adopting 14 changes proposed by BJP members and rejecting over 400 amendments pushed by the Opposition.
The Opposition members of the JPC had submitted exhaustive dissent notes, accusing the panel’s chairman of flouting rules and procedures to clear the bill to suit the government’s agenda.
The bill cleared by the JPC has contentious provisions like allowing a non-Muslim to become the chief executive officer of the waqf board, giving district magistrates the power to determine if a disputed property is waqf or belongs to the government and making a provision for at least two non-Muslim members to be appointed by state governments to their waqf board.
