New Delhi: In anticipation of the government taking up the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the ongoing Parliament session, Congress on Sunday alleged the proposed legislation was part of BJP’s strategy to keep the society in a state of permanent polarisation by demonising the minority community. The party also claimed major flaws in the bill, calling it “an assault on the Constitution of India”.
“The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is part of BJP’s strategy, and continuing attempts to damage the centuries-old bonds of social harmony… to demonise minority communities by spreading false propaganda and creating prejudices, dilute constitutional provisions that guarantee equal rights and protections to all citizens, and defame traditions and institutions of minority communities to keep our society in a state of permanent polarisation for electoral gains,” said a Congress statement issued by spokesperson Jairam Ramesh.
Once again identifying with the reservations the larger Opposition benches had raised and registered during the scrutiny of the bill by the joint parliamentary committee, Ramesh argued that the bill “is deeply flawed” on five counts: “All the institutions created by previous laws to administer waqfs are actively sought to be reduced in stature, composition and authority so as to deliberately deprive the community the right to administer its own religious traditions and affairs. Deliberate ambiguity has been introduced for determining who can donate their land for waqf purposes, thus altering the very definition of waqf itself. The waqf-by-user concept developed by the nation’s judiciary on the basis of long, continued and uninterrupted customary usage is being abolished,” the party maintained.
The statement further alleged: “Provisions in the existing law are being removed without any reason just to weaken the administration of the waqf. Enhanced defences are now being introduced in the law to protect those who have encroached on waqf lands. Far-reaching powers have been given to the collector and other designated state government officers on matters related to disputes… Officers of the state governments will now have the powers to derecognize any waqf on anyone’s complaint,” he said.
