{"id":116251,"date":"2025-04-01T10:11:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T10:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/?p=116251"},"modified":"2025-04-01T10:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T10:11:36","slug":"waqf-amendment-bill-in-lok-sabha-on-wednesday-3-days-before-session-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/?p=116251","title":{"rendered":"Waqf Amendment Bill In Lok Sabha On Wednesday, 3 Days Before Session Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Waqf Amendment Bill<\/a> – which proposes several changes to laws governing central and state boards, which decide how Muslim charitable properties are administered – will be tabled in the Lok Sabha Wednesday, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said this afternoon.<\/p>\n

The current Parliament session – i.e., the second half of the Budget session – ends Friday and Mr Rijiju, who is also the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said he wanted to allow MPs sufficient time to debate changes that have triggered a fierce row between the ruling BJP and the opposition.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the bill will be tabled in the Lok Sabha after the Question Hour and eight hours have been allotted for discussion. This can be extended at Speaker Om Birla’s discretion.<\/p>\n

The bill had been first tabled in the Lower House in August last year, after which it was sent to a joint parliamentary committee for scrutiny. The JPC submitted its report in February.<\/p>\n

The report was filed after squabbles between members from opposition parties and those from the BJP, and its allies, over the committee’s functioning. Opposition MPs accused the Chair – BJP MP Jagadambika Pal – of bias and rushing the bill through without proper consultations.<\/p>\n

READ |\u00a0<\/strong>“Ensure Fair Proceedings”: Suspended Waqf Panel MPs To Speaker<\/a><\/p>\n

The BJP refuted that claims; panel member and Lok Sabha MP Aparajita Sarangi said Mr Pal “tried to hear everybody out and gave sufficient time for everybody to move amendments…”<\/p>\n

The JPC held nearly three dozen hearings in six months but many of those ended in chaos, and at least one in physical violence after Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee smashed a glass bottle on the table<\/a>, after claiming provocation from the BJP’s Abhijit Gangopadhyay.<\/p>\n

Eventually 66 changes were proposed, of which all 44 from the opposition were rejected while the 23 from BJP and allied parties were accepted. After a vote 14 of the 23 were cleared.<\/p>\n

READ |\u00a0<\/strong>Rules On 2 Non-Muslims Among 14 Changes To Waqf Bill<\/a><\/p>\n

The removal of an annexure containing dissent notes from the opposition MPs triggered another row.<\/p>\n

The centre said the Chair had the discretion but, after talks, said the dissent notes would be included.<\/p>\n

READ |\u00a0<\/strong>Opposition MPs In Waqf House Panel Say Their Suggestions Ignored<\/a><\/p>\n

The JPC had 16 MPs from the BJP and allied parties, and 10 from the opposition.<\/p>\n

The original draft of the Waqf Amendment Bill had proposed 44 changes.<\/p>\n

These included nominating non-Muslim and (at least two) women members to each Waqf board, as well as a Union Minister, three MPs and persons of ‘national repute’. There was also a proposal to limit donations from Muslims practicing their religion for at least five years.<\/p>\n

The proposals were fiercely criticised by the opposition; senior Congress leader KC Venugopal said it amounted to a “direct attack on the freedom of religion”.<\/p>\n

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and the DMK’s Kanimozhi also spoke out, arguing the bill violated multiple sections of the Constitution, including Article 15 (the right to practice a religion of one’s choice) and Article 30 (the right to minority communities to establish and administer educational institutions).<\/p>\n

Sources earlier told NDTV the changes to the Waqf laws are meant to empower Muslim women and children who “suffered” under the old law.<\/p>\n

NDTV Explains |\u00a0<\/strong>Women, Non-Muslims, Council Can’t Claim Land: Waqf Changes<\/a><\/p>\n

The objective, it has been argued, is also to curb illegal occupancy of by Waqf boards, who, combined, have the largest land holdings in the country – around eight lakh acres; the Railways and the military have more but they are part of the government while the Waqf boards are private organisations.<\/p>\n

Sources further claimed a “dangerous narrative” is being manufactured by certain Muslim clerics who are making wild statements that their land will be snatched.<\/p>\n

With input from agencies<\/p>\n

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link<\/a> to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u200bThe Waqf Amendment Bill – which proposes several changes to laws governing central and state boards, which decide how Muslim charitable properties are administered – will be tabled in the Lok Sabha Wednesday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Waqf Amendment Bill – which proposes several changes to laws governing central and state boards, which decide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":116252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-scaled.jpeg",2560,1920,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-300x225.jpeg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-768x576.jpeg",640,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-1024x768.jpeg",640,480,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-1536x1152.jpeg",1536,1152,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-2048x1536.jpeg",2048,1536,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-825x575.jpeg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a8i8km7g_chhattisgarh-waqf-board_625x300_19_November_24-zadcm6-590x410.jpeg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/?author=0"},"category_info":"Uncategorized<\/a>","tag_info":"Uncategorized","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}